Star Wars Rebels - Breakdown
by Killerkitty641
Summary: Part 2 of the series I'm working on, continuing off from the events of A Fallen Hero. A mission goes wrong and tensions flare as the Force Nexus begins to corrupt Ezra and causes splits within the group. Later, the split is worsened after a close encounter with some Inquisitors and Ezra slips closer and closer to the dark side. Read "A Fallen Hero" first.
1. Breakdown P1 - Flash of Anger

Star Wars Rebels – E2 P1 – Flash of Anger

* * *

 **Before you read the story, it is Imperative for you to read the prologue, A Fallen Hero, as this is a continuation from that. Link here:**

/12310211/1/Star-Wars-Rebels-Fallen-Hero

I cannot put full links in because of the rules :(

I would like to thank everyone who's been liking and following the story so far and want to apologise for the colossal mess that'd been in part 5 of A Fallen Hero and this chapter until I updated them. What was happening was I'd be typing the stuff up on a word document, then putting it on Archive of Our Own (where I'm also posting these stories at the same time) and doing final edits in the thing there. I would copy what I'd put down and paste it here, not realizing that it would change the document to a HTML version once I saved it. This won't happen again now that I know what the problem was.

* * *

They finally got the lightsaber after pursuing it through several systems. They'd planned to attack the research station on Draxxus V after Revan's lightsaber had been discovered, but it'd been moved at the last minute to another station. From there it'd been shuttled between bases several times until it reached this planet, Corthyan VII, a planet that seemed to be constantly bombarded by rain. Clean, drinkable rainwater due to a mysterious lack of natural salts on the planet. Ezra and Sabine had entered the station, stolen the lightsaber, and escaped undetected. They were sheltering from the rain under a small rock ledge, one of several that stuck out of the otherwise flat ground, pointing skyward at a slight angle. The base itself was partially built into a cliff and hand a large parade ground / vehicle park and an observation tower.

"That was a good mission," commented Ezra as he stretched his arms

Sabine mumbled an agreement, focused on drying out the bag they'd brought to store the lightsaber in. "Nice not to be shot at for once."

"I think we're owed some easy missions like this."

"What happened to all the energy and enthusiasm I heard earlier?"

"I'm just tired, that's all."

"Oh, sure. Like you haven't been sneakily sleeping in every morning."

"What? How'd you know about that?" Ezra didn't even bother to deny it.

"After Hera does the morning rounds I began checking on whether you were up after I stopped seeing you go to the head at your usual time. And you were always fast asleep. Lazy bones." She smiled.

Ezra elbowed her. "Am not!"  
"Are too!" She replied as she elbowed him back. "You've been basically unconscious every time!"

"I'm not that bad! You and Zeb are far worse! We never see you before midday when we're not on operations."

"Shhh, I'm just teasing. No need to get us detected now."

Sabine was wrong though. They had already been detected.

* * *

The sniper waited, watching the pair chatter from the tower and occasionally getting a glimpse of the object they stole hanging from Sabine's belt. An old, red lightsabre from some Sith Lord, a priceless trophy for the Empire and the Rebels alike. He adjusted his scope slightly and made a correction according to the wind, which was gentle and stable in a westerly direction. He had been waiting for a while now, letting the inquisitors nearby argue over the finer points of the trap. He loaded a single bullet.

He preferred to use kinetic weapons. With more energy weapons and fewer kinetic ones, they signified his success by getting enough money to buy them. He also found that they hit much harder and did more damage than the lasers from blasters, and there were also a much wider variety of bullets, with different designs according to purpose. Some could splinter upon impact, while others had a sharper point for piercing armour. Some could even be loaded with explosive rounds, although he found them a bit messy.

He aimed at the girl, who'd just stood up to tell the boy off, probably for flirting. He could see her innocent face, her colourful hair and felt a pang of regret for what he was about to do. Ruining their young lives, and potentially their love. It was sad, but it didn't matter in the end, as long as he got paid. He had to feed his own family, and the Empire made use of his skill with rifles. He owed them his, saving him from Trandoshans capturing people to sell as slaves to the crosshairs settled on her chest.

A slight twitch of the finger was all it took and the girl was sent spinning off behind a large boulder. The boy ran forward and dragged her all the way behind it, much to the sniper's annoyance, as he'd just finished reloading.

"Hit one," he reported in a monotone voice to the Inquisitors.

* * *

Ezra was shocked by the sudden change in situation. They'd been happily joking, he'd flirted with Sabine a little and got her to stand up to tell him off. Then there was a dull crack and she'd been sent spinning off into the darkness. Acting more on autopilot than anything else, he'd dragged her behind the next nearest boulder and crouched beside her.

"Sabine," he managed to stutter.

Her face was pale and he could see the bullet wound's entry point, a neat little hole between 2 of her armour sections, just above the right thigh. A sudden change in wind must've caused the bullet to drop from where it was aimed, which was most likely the heart and lungs.

"No, no, no, no. Sabine. You have to be alive, you just have to be," he said, shaking her gently.

He put his hand to her neck, searching for a pulse. His wet fingers pushed into her wrist, desperately searching for a sign of life. He listened to her chest, checked if it rose and fell, but in this light, he couldn't tell, in the rain he couldn't hear. He activated their emergency transponder.

"You'll be ok… They'll come and get you out of here."

He put his hand to the wound and it came back darker and sticky with blood. His vision narrowed and his eyes began watering. He crunched his hand into a fist.

"Sabine…"

He looked at the Imperial base, floodlights shining into the dark and he felt a sudden surge of anger as something within him snapped. He felt the force nexus call to him, and he welcomed it. He grabbed the prize they'd worked so hard to steal, stepped out into the rain and activated both lightsabers, illuminating him in a mixture of green and red light. He began walking and almost immediately, a bullet whizzed out of the darkness aimed at his head, but he simply flicked his right hand up and the red beam of energy disintegrated the bullet. Another bullet came, and another, but Ezra deflected them and walked on, heading to the main gates of the base. All throughout his advance only 1 thought was in his mind.

 _I will have revenge._

* * *

In the Ghost, Kanan suddenly gasped.

"We need to get back to them now!" he said, shocked by the ripple he felt in the force.

"What's happened? Is it Ezra?" inquired Hera, worried now.

"They reported in a successful mission," interjected Zeb. "They would've activated their emergency transponder if something happened."

"I don't care. Something bad happened and we need to go NOW!"

"What's happened?"

"I can feel so much anger and pain. Something must've happened to Sabine."

The Ghost left the Nebulae it was hiding in and rushed to the planet at its maximum speed, ignoring the potential Imperial patrols.

"How long till we get there?"

"5 minutes, 10 if we have to deal with fighters."

* * *

A squad of Stormtroopers ran out of the gate and began firing. Ezra blocked all of their shots effortlessly, deflecting several back into the original shooters. A second squad joined the first, but they were too late to stop him as he reached their lines and began wielding the 2 swords with deadly accuracy, even though he'd never used 2 swords before. Within seconds, both teams were dead and he quickly crushed the gate turbolaser before it could fire at him. A single blaster bolt had gotten through and impacted on his shoulder, but he ignored the pain as he marched into the base.

"There he is!" one of the Stormtrooper commanders called.

The Ghost arrived just as Ezra reached the first Stormtroopers, while Hera was unable to land as the sniper in the tower fired at her and almost destroyed the airtight cockpit glass when she tried.

"I can't land until that sniper is gone," Hera called from the cockpit. "That last bullet almost shattered the glass. You need to do something to take him out!"

Instead they just watched, too high to jump and too far to shoot, especially in the rain.

"Where's Sabine?" asked Kanan.

"I don't see her." Replied Zeb. "But look at what the kid's doing…"

"Oh my god…". All 4 on the Ghost, including Chopper, were unable to comprehend what was happening below.

* * *

Ezra charged through the Imperial forces, blades flashing as he cut into the Stormtroopers or deflected their shots. The shots that did hit couldn't stop him savage the Imperial forces that were streaming from the structure built inside the cliff. He thrust, blocked and sliced through the throng of helpless Stormtroopers. Blood splattered his clothes and stained his fists, dead Stormtroopers lay in his wake. He mowed them down as he slowly advanced towards the main entrance, blades flashing left and right until suddenly there were none left. The silence was deafening as he stood alone, lightsabers in hand, surrounded by white, armored bodies. Here and there a head or and arm lay apart from its host, blood seeping out onto the parade square.

The door opened again and the 2 unknown inquisitors marched out.

"Impressive," the woman said smoothly, albeit nervously. "You know…"

"Shut up," ordered Ezra. "I'm going to kill all of you."

The 3 charged and met in the middle, a blur of red and green as they parried and stabbed relentlessly. The inquisitors were more skilled in lightsaber fighting, but Ezra had his reactions and accuracy boosted by the Force Nexus, so it wasn't long before he pushed both of them back and sliced the woman down the leg. She dropped to one knee, blocking the man's attack and giving Ezra an opportunity to force-grab the sniper and dash him against the rocks below. The brother charged once he had enough attack space, but Ezra dodged to the side and stabbed him through the heart. The body slammed down into the ground, his blood mingling with that of the Stormtroopers.

"EZRA!" Kanan called from the Ghost.

Ezra looked briefly at them, giving the woman a chance to leap up and stab him through the stomach. The lightsabers dropped from his hands, splashing down into the puddles of mud and blood, once shiny hilts now colored a dark red. Everyone looked on, horrified.

Ezra stared at the woman defiantly.

"Was that the best you could do?"

He grabbed a knife from his belt, hauled himself further along the lightsaber and stabbed her in the throat. She fell, gurgling horribly as she struggled to breath. Ezra withdrew her lightsaber, dropped it, and staggered out the main gate back to where he left Sabine. Kanan jumped down from the Ghost as soon as he was able to and charged after Ezra, searching amongst the boulders to find him collapsed next to a deathly-pale Sabine.

"ZEB!" He called into the darkness. "Grab a medkit and some hover-stretchers ASAP!"

He looked back down at two people he'd grown to love and felt a tearing in his heart. He did what he could for Ezra and Sabine while he waited for Zeb to come with the medical supplies, then sat down, wondering how it all went so wrong.

* * *

Ezra awoke with a start, disoriented and in quite a bit of pain. He was on a ship, in a small medical ward, alone. The main lights were off, and the only source of light was from an empty bacta tank nearby, glowing blue and casting shadows along the wall. There would be the occasional groan of metal, and the quiet rumble of engines told him that the ship was moving. There were 2 IV tubes going into his arm, connected to a standard saline drip.

A door opened and he immediately questioned the medical droid that walked in. "Where am I?"

"You are on the medical transport Theseus. Please, don't stress yourself," it replied.

"Where is Sabine?" He demanded, trying to sit up. He gave up after he felt a fierce stab of pain in the stomach where he'd been stabbed.

"She is in Medical Ward W3, just next door. She has to wear a brace around her leg for a while due to damage to the musculature around the right thigh. Minor damage to the intestines and the liver have been rectified during surgery."

"Surgery?" Asked Ezra, aghast.

"Yes. Some surgery was needed in order to remove shell fragments and retrieve the bullet, as well as repair the damage done by the bullet."

He struggled to get up again. "I need to see her."

"You cannot. You have suffered severe internal trauma and she is in a cast, unable to walk. To move you now would severely disrupt your recovery schedules."

Ezra sighed and relaxed a bit. He wasn't going to go anywhere with a lightsaber stab wound.

"When can I get up?"

"Estimate puts it at 2 weeks before you will be able to walk without badly damaging your insides, which have been partially regenerated using flash-cloned cells and some basic surgery."

"Since when did we have that stuff?"

"It was provided by Senator Bail Organa along with the ship to care for wounded combatants fighting against the Empire." Some kind of blue liquid began flowing into his arm. "I'm afraid this excitement caused by your waking up has caused some damage to the new tissue. I'm going to put you under for now."

Before Ezra could reply he felt the falling sensation and blacked out.


	2. Breakdown P2 - Regrets and Splitting

Notes:

Ok, maybe this didn't contain as much beef (arguments) as I'd thought it would, but I'm OK with it as a whole. I did kind of get writers block for a bit as I didn't want to ramp up the tension TOO high. I hope you enjoy it though!

Star Wars Rebels – E2 P2 – Regrets and Splitting

* * *

Ezra was out cold for the next week and a half, at Kanan's insistence. He claimed it was for Ezra's own good, which it was, but he was also avoiding the conversation he'd have to have with him once he woke. The Ghost crew ran a couple of minor ops while Sabine and Ezra were out of action, returning fine both times.

"Kanan, we have to wake him up at some point. You can't keep avoiding this conversation forever," Hera told him one evening.

"I know. We'll wake him up soon then," he replied, avoiding giving a direct answer.

"When?"

"Fine, in 3 days then. And we'll talk to him the day after, give him some time to collect his thoughts."

3 days later, Ezra woke up, pretty groggy but mostly pain-free and, to his surprise, dressed in clean clothes. Hera, Kanan and Zeb were waiting by the bacta tank, talking amongst themselves.

"I'm up," Ezra just about manages to say through his gravelly throat. He hadn't used his voice box for a while and had also just woken up from the sleep.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," smiled Hera as they walked over. "You slept for another 2 days after we took you off the medication."

"You sleep worse than me and Sabine combined," chuckled Zeb. "I can't wait to tell her about that."

"Ha. Where is she?" Ezra asked.

"She fell yesterday, right onto her injured thigh, so she's been forced to spend today in her room, sulking most likely," Kanan answered. "I honestly thought you would both be out for longer."

"Why? What were my injuries like?"

"Oh, nothing too bad," Hera trailed, smile slipping a bit.

"Actually they were terrible," said Kanan just after. "3 knife stab wounds, 47 blaster wounds and a stab through the stomach with a lightsaber. Technically you shouldn't even be alive. There have been almost no recorded cases like yours before."

Ezra didn't remember being stabbed by knifes, most likely the 2 inch personal defense ones some Stormtroopers had. He certainly remembered some disarmed enemies rushing at him with knives.

"What the hell were you doing, attacking the base by yourself?" Kanan continued, still disturbed by his apprentice's behavior that day.

"I thought they killed Sabine," Ezra replied angrily.

"But she's fine."

"Only because I cleared out the Imperials and killed the sniper that was stopping you from landing! If I hadn't you might've been shot down or I would've had to leave Sabine to escape myself!"

Hera placed an arm on Kanan's shoulder. "Hun, we should let him rest first before talking about it."

"I know," Kanan stormed out of the room, shortly followed by an annoyed Hera.

Zeb stopped by Ezra's bed. "That was quite something kid. Over 300 imperials and 2 inquisitors… it has to be some kind of record!"

"I should hope so. After all the effort I went to."

"I'm going to get Chopper to come and say hi. Cheeky thing's been avoiding your room since I caught him getting ready to zap you when they took you off the drugs."

Zeb went out and Ezra waited, thinking about what happened.

What had happened then? He remembered staring at what he thought was Sabine's body, remembered her blood staining his hand. There was a large mess of bodies that he'd cleaved his way through, red and green flashes indicating another Stormtrooper death. He had killed them mercilessly, beheading and dismembering them or sending flying with the force, even the ones who were unarmed and unable to fight back. He remembered standing amongst the bodies, blood refusing to be washed away by the downpour of rain. The 2 inquisitors dying horribly, his own stab wound. Most of it.

Either Zeb never managed to get Chopper or he'd forgotten, and Ezra wasn't disturbed except by the medical droid who brought him food and water, encouraging him to eat even though he found the rice and alien meat mixture wholly unappetizing. Eventually, after trying to sleep for several hours without success, he decided to go see Sabine.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered as he swung himself round so he was sitting up, bracing himself for what was coming next. He gingerly placed a foot on the floor, then the other, and he slowly stood up. A brief stab of pain from his stomach was all he felt. Walking left a lot to be desired though, as he toppled forward as soon as he tried.

Eventually, he got himself into a position where he could lean against the wall and hobble his way along. Ezra made it out the door and waited for a second, listening for sounds of commotion. Nothing. The ship is silent except for his ragged breathing and occasional footsteps. The lights were off, leaving him squinting in the darkness as he inched his way to W3. Sabine's ward. Upon entering, he threw himself into a chair, startling Sabine awake.

"Who's there," she asked reflexively as she woke up.

"Just me," replied Ezra, already tired out by the exercise.

"Right. Ezra, what do you want? It's 2 in the morning."

"I wanted to talk. About what happened."

"Does it have to be now?"

"There's too much risk during the day, and they'd probably force me back to bed anyway."

"Okay," she yawns.

"Back when we'd just completed the mission. When you were shot. I just… felt so angry. It was like I lost control of myself. I thought you were dead and so I went up to the base and killed everyone."

"Ezra…" she whispered, shocked.

He looked at her with teary eyes. "I killed Every. Single. One. All of them. Killing them like so many bugs that one would squash underfoot. It was so easy… I could crush them. I just had to flick my wrist and they would fly into a wall or out of the base. I just had to clench my fist and I would break someone's spine. I felt no pain. Just anger. Hate. And Fear."

Sabine's eyes were wide as she asked what it was he was afraid of then.

"Afraid of losing all that I cared for. I thought I'd lost you. It felt like part of me died then, seeing you lie lifeless on the ground…"

The nexus jabbed his head suddenly. He collapses and the last thing he hears is Sabine shouting his name as he falls off the chair.

* * *

He's awake. But he isn't in the medical ward. Or the Ghost. Or even a ship at all. He's surrounded by an inky, impenetrable blackness. He can't see anything. He can't hear anything. It is as though he has died and gone to hell, except hell is a never-ending, never changing nothingness hat swamps his entire being.

A red light suddenly glowed behind him as a lightsaber is activated and he heard Vader's ominous breathing. He spins around and sees Vader standing there, watching.

"You cannot save your friends now," he says neutrally.

An image of his friends lined up as prisoners flashes into his head.

"She will be the first of those to suffer."

An image of Sabine curled up in a prison cell appears, then vanishes just as quickly.

"What are you going to do to them?" demanded Ezra. Vader remained silent, except for his constant, steady breathing.

"Answer me!"

"You have no hope left. Your fleets are falling apart, your worlds being subjugated one by one. She will be the least of your concerns."

Vader vanishes before Ezra can respond, taking the light with him. There is another ominous breath, then silence.

Ezra wakes up in the real world with a start, sweating all over. A rebel medical orderly rushed over to him in concern.

"You alright mate?" the orderly asked in an Australian accent. "You looked like you were having a nightmare, so I thought I'd check on you."

"The others in my crew, where are they?" Ezra demanded.

"Um," the orderly was taken aback by his urgency. "I think they went out on a mission recently. Why?"

"I need to get to the bridge. We need to warn them it's a trap!"

Ezra rolled out of the bed and managed to stumble his way to the bridge, ignoring the medic, who was under instructions not to hurt the boy. Given the claims of danger, his orders, and the need to get him back to bed, he was more than a bit confused as to what he should do, and followed Ezra to the bridge. The bridge is larger and more spacious than most bridges, and includes a circular holo-table that can come out of the floor.

"Ezra Bridger!" exclaimed Commander Sato as he entered the bridge. "What are you doing up?"

"My friends are in danger! I think the mission they went on is a trap," Ezra explained urgently.

"You mean the mission we just got back from?" said Sabine as she walked in with Zeb, Kanan and Hera. "The mission went off without a hitch."

"I had a vision."

"A vision? Are you sure?" asked a surprised Kanan. Kanan had sensed Ezra's distress on the way back, but assumed it was just a flashback from the mission where he got stabbed.

"Definitely."

"Oh, like you haven't had dreams before," sighed an irritated Sabine.

"Vader was in it and…" he began.

"Or nightmares," she interrupts.

"He said he was coming after us. And you were the one who was going to suffer first."

"It was probably just one of your weird dreams," she said. "Get over it."

She left the room and walked down the corridor.

"It was more than a dream!" he yelled at her.

"I'm sure it was," came the sarcastic reply.

Ezra looked at her vanish around a corner, distraught. Hera went over and put an arm round his shoulders comfortingly.

"I'm sure it was more than a dream," she said comfortingly as she led him back to the medical ward. Once they were there, Kanan made him tell them everything.

"Sounds like a vision to me," Kanan said once they were done listening to Ezra's recounting of the vision, which Zeb hadn't attended by going off to try to get Sabine to join them. "But we can't be sure when he'll strike. The fleet is intact and none of the planets in our quadrant have had any serious Imperial crackdowns except for Lothal and Garacor. And Garacor was a temporary one."

"We will be careful," Hera assured him.

"But I'm not there to help, that's what's driving me nuts the most," Ezra said angrily, balling his hand into a fist. "I just feel so helpless here, waiting to hear whether you've been killed or injured or captured…"

Hera wrapped her arms around him. "Shh… I know, I know."

"Couldn't you get me back on active duty sooner?" Hera shook her head and he raised his voice, "You put Sabine on!" he unwound himself from Hera's arms.

"You know we can't do that," said Kanan. "Sabine's injury was mostly a clean wound. They only kept her in a brace for so long to be sure that her thigh muscles had recovered properly."

"But I want to go out! I need to!" he began to get angry again.

"Calm down Ezra," Kanan ordered

"I won't calm down! I can't just lie here doing nothing!"

"Well, as your master, I am ordering you to stay here and recover."

"I'm sick of you ordering me around!"

"What good would you be down there anyway? You were stabbed with a Lightsaber! We'd probably get killed trying to save you!"

"Cut it out!" yelled Hera. "Kanan, out. I'll speak with you later. Ezra, calm down. You are no good to us dead!"

Kanan stomped out for the second time in as many days, while Ezra sighed and lay down on the bed.

"I know. I just… I just can't shake the feeling that something will happen to her. And all of you."

"We still have a duty to the rebellion. You would still go out if one of us was there."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

"Anyway, get some rest. You've probably aggravated the wound a bit, so get some more rest."

She left Ezra alone in the room and he slowly falls asleep, the nexus poking at him subtly as he did so.

But he finds no respite in sleep.

* * *

Vader comes again, breathing menacingly in the never-ending darkness, illuminated only by his lightsaber. He was closer this time.

"She will be mine… And there is nothing you can do."

He vanishes, leaving Ezra bathed in a cold sweat. He gets up and walks into the corridor, right in front of Sabine and Zeb heading to the Ghost.

"Where are you going?" he inquires.

"Another mission," Sabine snaps at him. "That's where."

"What about my vision?" he asks, already knowing the answer.

"Your… Your vision?" she gives an exasperated sigh.

"What is your problem? I'm…"

"My problem," she snarls as he is slammed against the wall, "is that you massacred more than 300 people, completely ignorant of injuries, killing everyone, unarmed or not, then came to my room several days later and moans to me about how he lost control because his mind is too weak to not be taken over by a stupid Force Nexus and then has some puberty-influenced dream about wanting to keep me here 'for my own safety'. I can't trust someone who is unstable and has killed hundreds in cold blood. You di'kut," she swore as she stomped off to the Ghost.

Ezra leaned against the wall, astonished and upset. She'd called him a di'kut, a useless individual or a waste of space in Mandalorian. He suddenly felt depressing sadness, like his heart was being clawed out again in a fashion similar to the mission to retrieve Revan's lightsaber.

"She has a point, you know," said Zeb, who'd been a hapless spectator until Sabine left. "What you did then. Even I've never seen anything like it. How you were just killing them without a second thought. She saw the video footage, hacked it from the Ghost's systems. And then you went went into her room in the night to talk about it, which ended up with you crying and passing out. How is she not supposed to feeling weirded out by that?"

It wasn't much and Zeb knew it, but an irritated "Hurry Up!" from Sabine forced him to continue on his way to the Ghost. Ezra wandered back into his room and collapsed onto his bed.

Sabine hates me, he thought. And Zeb is scared of me. What must Hera and Kanan think? What would anyone think?

He heard footsteps, then voices. Commander Sato and Kanan.

"I know he's become a liability Sato, but his heart is in the right place," said Kanan

"While that may be true, we have invested tons of resources in keeping him alive and so far he's managed to waste one of the few uses of the tissue cloner we have currently and has severely disrupted the crew, especially Sabine."

"Commander…"

"You need to keep an eye on him Kanan. As much as it pains me to say so, I will have to remove him from the fleet if he continues to drain our limited resources to no gain."

They continue walking and Ezra waits quietly.

So that's what Kanan thinks.

He couldn't sleep. The nexus let constant thoughts pound him, not letting his weary body rest.

 _I'm a disappointment._

 _I'm weak_

 _I'm a murderer._

 _A psychopath._

And then something hit him in the gut.

 _He could never be a Jedi now._

* * *

Notes:

Chapter 4 will explain A LOT about Sabine's current treatment of Ezra.

I thought this was OK considering all my thoughts were on Chapters 3, 4 and 5 and the final of the series, which I'm practically killing myself over not being able to write yet.  
I try to update this regularly (normally a chapter per day, but that depends on several factors). If you follow it, you'll be updated every time I bash out another chapter before I go to bed for the next evening's upload, where I make corrections and check that it isn't entirely awful.

Let me know what they're like, because community feedback will help the series get better!


	3. Breakdown P3 - Cracks in the wall

SWR E2 P3 – Cracks in the wall

* * *

Ezra finally got to sleep after hours of waiting, only to be woken by a sinister feeling in his gut. Something was amiss. The ship was drifting, only minimal power to the ship, enough to maintain gravity and life-support, but none even going to the lights. There was no medical orderly or robot waiting in the room. Something was definitely off.

He heard deep, heavy footsteps outside his door and he waited. His lightsaber was on the bedside table and he grabbed it, mentally thanking whoever had forgotten to remove his lightsaber and left it on the table. He got out of bed and padded to the door, lacking shoes and socks, making no noise whatsoever. He'd been sleeping in his clothes and felt a bit better when he considered the fact that he wasn't wearing a hospital gown instead.

The door opened and a figured walked in. It was armoured, with an imperial insignia on his shoulder.

 _Good enough_ Ezra thought as he activated the lightsaber into the stomach of the Shadow Trooper. The body collapsed onto the floor, its matt-black armour blending imperfectly within the dark confines of the lightless ship. The armour was bulkier than the normal Stormtrooper ones, but not so much so that it restricted visibility. The gun still clutched in his hand was a slightly modified version of the standard E-11, with a suppressor instead of a longer barrel, meaning it was short range and silent. Ezra picked it up and deactivated his lightsaber.

A quick check through the force let him see where his friends were. The 4 of them in the bridge, along with several other crew members. And 2 dark-side users, but he couldn't tell who they were.

He snuck along the corridor, weapon raised, dispatching any trooper he came across quickly and quietly. There were a few dead rebels around the ship, caught unawares during the boarding. He'd reached a body count of 6 Imperial kills by the time he reached the bridge, including the 2 guards outside the door, which was ripped open using the force. Inside his friends were lined up, kneeling in the centre of the bridge, hands and legs bound together behind their backs. Hera was on the far left (from Ezra's view), then Kanan, Zeb and Sabine. Chopper stood deactivated in the corner. Several other crew members, including Commander Sato, were bound and gagged at the front of the bridge, away from the action. The male inquisitor at the base, the 4th Brother, was leaning against the wall, looking quite relaxed, obviously recovered from the stab that must've missed his heart. The 7th Sister paced the room in front of his friends.

 _She's supposed to be dead,_ Ezra thought. _Dead on Malachor._

"I grow tired of your resistance," she said calmly as she walked slowly. "You will tell me where the boy is, or I'll be forced to kill you. One by One, until you are either all dead or you give up his location."

"Keep trying filth," growled Zeb.

She dragged a rebel over by the leg, then swiftly stabbed him through the heart. She tossed the body casually aside.

"That's one."

Hera spat at the foot of the Inquisitor. "We will never betray each other!"

"Don't fight back. It will just make it worse when you die," the 4th Brother said smoothly from behind his mask as he walked over to Hera. He crouched and gently stroked her face with one hand.

"And we wouldn't want that now, would we?"

Hera, to her credit, refused to give him the satisfaction of pulling away in fear, instead sending mental death threats to him. If looks could kill.

"You'd fetch a high price on the slave market. Not the labour one of course."

"They'd never pay for me," she snarled.

"Oh, I beg to differ. But your young friend over there on the right, she's the one they'll pay for."

He moved over to Sabine and reached for her head. She backed off as much as she could, but the tight binding of the hand and leg cuffs restricted her movement, meaning she was quickly caught.

"Her flesh is soft and supple. She is still young and fairly… what do they say… pretty. Fresh meat always goes for a lot in the markets. And not the labour ones. The one who pays the most will be your master. He'll take you home and the first thing he'll do is…"

"Brother!" interjected the 7th Sister. "That's not helping."

The 4th brother laughs and saunters over to his original spot by the wall.

"I'll kill you once I'm free, scum," threatened Kanan.

The 7th Sister crouched and extended a hand to Kanan's head.

"Men, always so crude…". He groaned in pain as she used the force to attack his head and she laughed.

"Am I crude Bitch?" asked Kanan, trying to distract them from Sabine

"Let's not get too rude now. You're supposed to be a Jedi. Jedi don't do insults or revenge, do they? Now, tell me what I want to know and I'll stop the 4th brother here from taking your 2 women. He could have them for as long as he wanted before selling them on the market. Meanwhile, you get to watch between the bouts of pain you'll be suffering."

Ezra stepped out from around the door. "That won't happen while I'm here."

The 2 Inquisitors turned and looked at him, a little surprised at his sudden appearance.

"Welcome, Ezra Bridger," cackled the 7th Sister, an amused smile on her face. The 4th brother continued leaning against the wall, completely relaxed.

"Are you coming back for some more stabs?" enquired Ezra as he menacingly twirled his lightsaber.

The 4th Brother chuckled. "Hardly. I was barely awake that day when we first met. I had a little too much to drink, should we say."

"He was spoiling himself on local beverages," said the 7th Sister as she walked slowly behind his friends, trailing her finger across their shoulders. "Hardly a fair fight, especially as he was taking the most inexperienced one of the inquisitors out on a routine practice mission. And she still managed to stab you"

"I was distracted. Besides, I still won, didn't I?" Ezra smiled to annoy the inquisitors, but they remained unfazed. He could sense it, and they could probably sense his worry for his friends, but that also meant that they could sense his anger and hate.

Almost like she was following a script, she went behind his friends and drew her lightsaber, activating a single blade. "Which one do I kill first? Your precious master or your captain?"

"Yourself," growled as he lifted her up and dropped her back down in front of his friends. "You want a fight, you've got one."

* * *

The 2 inquisitors charged and he leaped over them, hand stretched out towards the object lying on the communications table. Revan's lightsaber flew over to him and when the inquisitors next looked, he had 2 lightsabres again, both humming like they were anticipating the ensuing clash of swords. His eyes became tinted yellow instead of his normal bright-blue.

"Give us those lightsabers and we'll let your friends live boy," snarled the 7th Sister.

"Come and get them!" he shouted back

They crashed together in a whirl of flashing blades and rapid dodges as they each thrust and parried the blows that were coming. Ezra was somehow duelling with 2 blades for only the second time in his life and was managing very well, although at a slight disadvantage fighting 2 people who were better trained and had…

Ezra forced the 7th Sister back and swung at the 4th Brother, who activated the second blade and blocked it, then twisted the handle and swiped at Ezra's legs with the lower blade. Ezra barley managed to jump up as the blade skittered along the floor, a large scorch mark left smouldering in its wake. The 7th Sister charged in again and it was all Ezra could do to avoid losing his feet as she did the same manoeuvre. He was slowly pinned between them as they walked forward and caught him within killing range.

"Time to mix things up a little," muttered Ezra as he used his foot to press a button on the floor and the holo-table shot up with them on top. The inquisitors were caught off guard, giving him the opportunity to jump down and force push them both into the wall by the door. The nexus granted him such power and it called for him to go further, pushing him to kill the 2 helpless inquisitors. He obliged and crushed his hand into a fist, and the 4th Brother's arm crumpled into several odd, jagged angles, enticing a scream of pain from its owner.

"Ezra, don't!" called Kanan from where they were kneeling, but the words passed through Ezra and didn't stay with him.

3 black armoured Stormtroopers rushed in, 2 with their weapons raised, poised to shoot, the 3rd holding something in his hand. A small creature. A sleeping Yasalmir.

The creature woke and immediately Ezra felt his connection with the force vanish. Part of the Yasalmir's features was that it extruded a kind of bubble in which anyone force-sensitive lost connection to the force until they moved out of range. The 2 inquisitors fell from the wall and the 7th Brother passed out, now lacking the force connection that kept him conscious and helped reduce the pain.

"You are nothing without your precious connection to the nexus," hissed an annoyed 7th Sister.

"Want to remove that thing and try to say that again?" smirked Ezra as he watched the 2 troopers with guns; without a force connection, his reactions would be slowed and he'd be mostly unable to deflect their shots.

"What's going on Ezra?" asked Kanan, now completely blind as his connection was severed.

"Your apprentice isn't enjoying his first encounter with a Yasalmir," replied the 7th Sister.

"Oh, great," he muttered back. "More complications."

"This just isn't our day, is it?" Hera stated more than asked.

The trooper nearest the 4th Brother bent down and lifted him up, then dragged him back to whatever ship they'd come from, escorted by another that was waiting outside.

Ezra charged suddenly, taking both the troopers and the Sister by surprise. He stabbed the nearest trooper with Revan's lightsaber and hurled his green one at the 7th Sister, who barely managed to dodge out of the way. The trooper with the Yasalmir ran around the table and Ezra gave pursuit, desperate to catch the creature, switching the red lightsaber to his better right hand as he went.

"Mistake," crowed the 7th Sister as she stabbed at him from the floor, but missed and simply cut the air. "damn."

She got up and jumped over the table, cutting Ezra off from the trooper. They locked blades, then broke with a flourish of lightsabers, then went at each other full-on, each desperately trying to break the other's defence.

Ezra backed off, looking as though he'd been forced back by her superior strength and she gleefully pursued him. A sudden kick to the chest put an end to her plans as he used her as a launch-board to get himself close to the blaster on the floor. He scooped it up and fired at the Yasalmir, getting a direct hit and killing the unfortunate creature, shortly followed by the trooper. So, Rex's shooting lessons had stuck with him!

His triumphed was short lived however, as he reacted almost too late to the thrust by the 7th Sister and her lightsaber grazed his hand holding the blaster. He howled in pain and rolled to one side. They were almost back to where his friends were tied up, and after a few more seconds of intense duelling, they were locked together in front of his friends, who stared at them, helpless to do anything but watch.

"You still cannot beat me, child," the 7th Sister snarled as they glared at each other from between their lightsabers.

"I am no child," he growled back just as aggressively as he extended a hand and pulled the other lightsaber towards him. She figured out what he was doing too late and he shoved the green one straight through the lightsaber cross guard into her arm, then into her chest, getting an ear-piercing wail in return and he pulled his arm out.

The dual red blades flickered and died as the kyber crystals were separated from their casing and destroyed. The 7th Sister collapsed onto the floor, clutching her ruined arm and howling in pain.

"You said something about me being too weak to beat you," said Ezra sarcastically as he clipped his green lightsaber to his belt, favouring his right hand, which still clutched Revan's lightsaber.

Ezra raised the lightsaber and the Sister stuck her hand out. "Wait, I can…"

"Shut up bitch," Ezra snarled as he sliced through her torso and separated her neck from her head. But he didn't stop there. Anger clouded his sight as he remembered what they were going to do his friends, so he swung again and again, headless of the shouts to stop from the people he set out to save until Hera practically screamed at him.

"EZRA BRIDGER STOP DOING THAT!"

He swung round and pointed the lightsaber at Hera, glowing red blade hovering inches from her neck. Her eyes widened in fear and everyone held their breaths as they watched. The sudden silence was only punctuated by the occasional crackle from the sword as it hummed quietly.

Ezra gasped and backed off after what seemed like an eternity, yellow fleeing from his eyes. He looked at his friends in horror, then the lightsaber still glowing in his hand. He dropped it seconds later when he realised what he'd almost done and it landed with a solid thud, blade deactivating as it fell. He leaned against the table, putting his head in his hands, not believing or entirely comprehending what he'd been doing.

"Hera… I'm…" was all he managed to choke out before his words caught in his mouth and he choked, going into what seemed to be a state of shock. He sniffled, looked at his friends, and ran, fleeing as fast as he could to wherever he felt safest. The Ghost crew heard the red alert status go off seconds before a bang that indicated an escape pod launch. They exhaled breaths they'd all been holding in. Hera was trembling and the other 3 were too caught up in surprise and suspense that they couldn't speak for several minutes.

The rebel crew not captured in the attack came in soon and freed them. Kanan went straight over to Hera and they embraced, comforting each other. Zeb and Sabine both walked out to their rooms, still in a state of shock, while Kanan continued to hug Hera as she shook.

"It's ok, it's ok, I'm here," he whispered soothingly to her. "I'm right here. You're safe now."

She continued trembling, but not as badly.

"Let's get you back to your room, ok?"

She nodded slightly and they both rose up and walked to Hera's cabin, where Hera sat down on the bed and breathed deeply several times. She seemed to be shaking less, but Kanan sensed she was still scared. Truth be told, so was he. Ezra had almost killed Hera, HAD killed the 7th Sister and crushed the arm of the 4th brother. He'd never seen him act like that before and knew they had to solve the problem with the Nexus.

"I've never seen him act like that," said Sabine from the doorway. She was just as shocked as them and he could tell just by listening to her voice.

"It's the Nexus. It's corrupting him," he replied sadly.

She sat down with Hera and hugged her too, and Zeb walked in just afterwards.

"Don't worry Hera. We'll get him back," he assured her.

They sat around the room, unsure of how to proceed with doing that.


	4. Breakdown P4 - Separation, Still Apart

Star Wars Rebels – E2 P4 – Still Apart

* * *

It'd been nearly a month since Ezra had run away, crashing his escape pod into a nearby moon, one of several inhabitable ones orbiting a gas giant. The moons of the Gas Giant Vernus II (Kathral, Orchat and, the largest, Quent) were always lined up in reverse order as they orbited the purple mass of Vernus II in a thin asteroid field around it. There were also several other tiny inhabitable moons, with their own unique very low-gravity fauna and flora.

Ezra had landed several miles away from where he watched now, nibbling at a food-bar as 3 rebels patrolled the hill in front of him. He was lying in a field of soft, yellow grass-like plants, which grew to a decent height. Like miniature wheat without the heads. He'd set up camp in a nearby cave system, with its own special skylight room thanks to a massive hole in the ceiling. He occasionally harassed imperial convoys, distributing what food he didn't need to the locals, which was most of it. There was only 1 big city on Orchat, a mining colony that grew to have farms around the outside and a space-elevator to the Empire's main gas-refining station, where they processed all the gasses collected from Vernus II's outer atmosphere. Rumour had it the gas mixtures they collected also had some tibanna gas that the Empire were secretly refining to quickly get some more fuel.

The rebels on the ridge of the hill went down the other side and Ezra rushed up to watch. They were wandering their way down, meandering through rocks, mostly relaxed, but still relatively alert. Here and there, a small creature rustled in the long grass as it scuttled out of the way. The sun was shining down through the Asteroid field, casting ever-shifting shadows on the ground.

Ezra spotted a Stormtrooper patrol of 4 walking around to the left, a slight rise in the ground separating them from each other. The few seconds it took for the Stormtroopers to reach the top of the rise and spot the rebels was enough for Ezra to unsling his Cycler rifle and aim squarely at the Stormtrooper commander's head.

"Contact front!" yelled the commander just before he was sent flying by the bullet that hit his helmet's weaker side armour.

Within seconds, a brief exchange of gunfire occurred and a rebel was shot down, along with 2 more Stormtroopers. The final one ran, but Ezra didn't give it too much thought when he fired another round and sent it straight through the Stormtrooper's back.

"Thanks kid," one of the rebels called out to him as the other checked on their friend.

"Don't mention it."

Ezra ran down to the body check if the Stormtrooper had gotten a signal out, but then heard a speeder bike rev up and continued past it. There were 2 speeder bikes and a troop transport round the next hill and 3 scout troopers standing around, with a fourth that had just left on his bike.

"Hi guys," Ezra quipped as he jumped over 2 of them and used the 3rd's face as a launch pad to send him flying onto the bike. "Nice reactions."

Ezra shot off on the bike, leaving the 3 bemused scout troopers looking at his retreating form. In between them, a small device blinked twice.

Ezra smiled to himself as he heard a dull thump and a quick glance behind assured him that the device had gone off, leaving an orange cloud of smoke. He wasn't sure how Sabine felt about him copying her colourful smoke bombs, but he enjoyed making them, even though they'd never be up to the same standard as hers.

* * *

Up ahead, the scout trooper had reached his maximum speed, skilfully piloting his way over the rough terrain, making dangerous turns and sometimes jumping the speeder over the small dips between mounds. Ezra followed as best he could, but only his force-sharpened senses allowed him to keep up with the biker ahead, who was easily the most skilled trooper Ezra had ever seen.

"Karabast," Ezra cursed as the bike's underside clipped the ground, millimetres away from destroying the repulsor that kept his bike off said ground. He knew where the Scout Trooper was taking him. Towards a mud-flat that ran parallel with a sea cliff. There, the trooper would be able to out-manoeuvre and potentially destroy Ezra and his bike.

"Since when did you use that language?" someone inquired through his comm.

It was Sabine, flying in the Phantom not much higher than Ezra.

"When have I not?" he smiled.

"Whenever Hera was in the room, that's when."

He chuckled to himself as he remembered the verbal beating Hera had given him last time he'd sworn when she could hear him, then almost immediately felt a pang in his chest as he recalled how he'd almost killed her.

"She wants you to come back, you know," Sabine said softly, knowing why Ezra hadn't responded after several seconds. "We all do."

Ezra steeled himself. "I know. But I'm not coming back. I'm not going to put all of you at risk."

"And you can stop the Empire from threatening us daily?" she replied, knowing full well what he really meant.

"I'm not going to let myself hurt you guys," came the inevitable answer.

"I swear I'll shoot you myself if it means I can bring you back."

He snickered.

"I'm deadly serious," she said, now slightly annoyed.

"I know you are," he smirked back.

The Phantom swung over him to his left as a large rise came up ahead. The back door opened and Zeb stuck his head out.

"Get out of the way of that thing!" he yelled as Ezra pulled the controls up at the last second and sent himself shooting up the hill.

The speeder bike launched off the top of the hill, repulsors causing it to bounce off the top of the Phantom, and then landed back down on the ground. They'd reached the mudflats and the trooper's bike was still a fair way ahead, a fair bit to the left of them.

"Ezra!" an indignant Sabine yelled.

"Crazy loth-rat," Zeb sighed to himself.

"Oh, you haven't seen the half of it Zeb!" yelled Ezra from just below, startling the Lasat, who had no idea Ezra could hear him.

They watched in astonishment as he let go of the controls and locked the speed at max.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Zeb yelled. "You're gonna get yourself killed like that!"

Ezra ignored him and calmly stood on the bike. The bike moving at over 180mph with no one controlling it. The bike that could suddenly tip if he unbalanced it a little.

Sabine gasped as Ezra unslung his rifle and aimed at the figure on a bike ahead of them.

"No way…"

He aimed for a few seconds, then fired. It was a beautiful shot. The bullet passed between the trooper's eyes as he looked back at his pursuit and he was flung off his bike, which continued its speedy journey for several more seconds until it clipped a rock and crumpled into a fiery heap.

Ezra caught Sabine staring at him in astonishment.

"What? Has the great Mandalorian weapons expert finally met her match?" he jested as he sat back down on the bike.

She continued staring at him as they flew.

He sniggered when he saw their faces. "All right, you can shut your mouths now."

Sabine closed her, embarrassed to be staring at him, even though that stunt was probably one of the coolest things she'd ever seen.

"I can't wait to see Kanan's face when I tell him about this!" exclaimed Zeb from the back, a stupid big grin on his face.

"Tell me you recorded that," said Ezra, just as happy as Zeb. "Please say you did."

Sabine had completely forgotten about the cameras on the exterior of the ship.

"I don't know. I'll have to check when we get back," she replied. "With you."

"As tempting as the offer sounds, I'll stay put," he replied. "Don't forget to show Hera and Kanan if you have recorded it though!"

Ezra shot off to the right, straight towards the cliff and Sabine gave pursuit.

"What in the galaxy are you doing now?" Sabine yelled just before Ezra threw something behind him and stuck it to the Phantom's windshield. "Why did you just throw a bomb onto the Phantom?"

"Wait, the kid did what?" exclaimed Zeb from the back of the ship.

"It's my own type of miracle, except it isn't going to blow you out of the sky."

Ezra saw Sabine roll her eyes seconds before the smoke bomb fizzed and released blue smoke, covering the entire windshield of the Phantom, and did so for several seconds until it ran out and popped off. The Phantom swung round over the open ocean and hovered. Sabine couldn't see any sign of Ezra, but the lack of burning wreckage at the bottom of the cliff gave a good sign that he was still alive. The fact that he wasn't still on top of the cliff meant that he'd gone down, and most likely gone into one of the numerous caves scattered along the base of the cliff.

"Spectre 5 to Ghost. I just encountered Spectre 6," she reported, feeling slightly drained that Ezra had yet again rebuked their attempts to get him back. "He made it away again."

She turned the ship around and flew up out of the atmosphere.

Zeb leaned over and watched them accelerate towards the stars.

"I think you need to talk to him," he said after a while.

"We tried that. He ignored all of our messages," she replied tersely.

"No, as in YOU. The rest of us have all sent personal messages to him, but they haven't had the same effect as one from you would. He looks up to you and admires you like no one else and, despite our constant teasing about how he flirts with you, he genuinely does like you. And he can empathize or connect with you more than any of us. I can connect with him a little, being his roommate, and we take the piss out of each other all the time, but I'm a Lasat captain who has experienced things much more differently to him. Chopper and him always fight, and while Hera and Kanan are probably more like parental figures, it doesn't make much difference because he hurt them. Messages from them don't have the same effect because every time they say something about forgiving him, he is immediately reminded of why he needed to be forgiven in the first place and so strengthens his resolve to stay away. I don't think he has really forgiven himself for what he almost did to Hera, and I know he still feels really guilty about what happened on Malachor. He needs something from you, especially after you've been cold-shouldering him while he was still with us."

Sabine looked at the Lasat, surprised by his heartfelt expletive, but she knew he was right. She wasn't doing enough, but there was a reason for that. A personal one.

That didn't matter anymore. Getting Ezra back was what mattered.

"Ok," she sighed sadly. "I'll do it."

"Hey, I get the feeling it's a personal thing that's causing the issue, so I'll do my best to let Hera let you send a private message," he comforted, putting a hand on her shoulder. Hera had been trying to get herself into all the messages, telling him she forgave him and practically begging for him to come back.

Sabine nodded. "Thanks. But I need to tell everyone this anyway. I've kept it for too long."

The ship exited the Stratosphere and sailed away to the Ghost, sitting in orbit a few miles away.

* * *

Ezra walked to his camp from where he left the speeder in the cave, feeling exuberant having stolen a speeder and then shot a Scout Trooper while standing on the bike at full speed. His camp was simple enough; a bed just next to the 'skylight' hole in the roof, not far from a side passage. It was fairly high up, being a cave within what was like a giant termite mound and some holes from which there were fantastic views. There was a crate-turned-table next to his bed with a long-range radio on it, as well as cooking utensils and a plate. Scattered around the base were various bits and pieces that he'd been too busy to organise.

Too busy hunting Imperials or too busy feeling sorry for yourself? He snorted.

He grabbed a quick mug of caf from a still-functioning machine he'd 'liberated' from an Imperial garrison. A large fuel tank stood at the far wall, filled with some rare type of Tibanna gas according to the Imperial records. By it sat several blasters and rifles of various makes and designs. There were quite a few stolen E-11s, including some carbine versions, as well as a DLT-19, several designs of Cyler rifle and DH-17s, and a lone T-10 Ion Disruptor rifle that he captured from an Imperial weapons shipment. Here and there, boxes of ammunition or fuel cells lay about with the empty food cans and odd grenade he forgot to stash away. He unslung his personal Cyler rifle, a master-crafted weapon with ornate designs on the handle and a scope with variable zoom, and sat down to polish it. He worked quickly, used to cleaning the barrel after a month of using it; it'd been the first, and in his opinion, best weapon that he captured, and he was keen to keep it in its best condition. Within a few minutes, he'd cleaned the barrel and scope, and was working on the trigger mechanism when an urgent beeping came from the long-range transmitter. He switched it on, listening but not speaking.

Back on the Ghost, the crew were gathered around the games table, watching Sabine as she sat on the bench, radio in hand.

"I can only guess at what you might be feeling, Ezra," she began.

She silently cursed herself. That wasn't the best way to begin.

"I wanted to… apologise, for what I was doing. While you were still here. I didn't understand what you were going through after that. I was being selfish and didn't appreciate how much you did for me, how you faced down an entire Imperial garrison and almost died just because I was hurt. The reason I'd been… ignoring you, not thanking you for what you did was because something that happened in my past..."

She looked at Kanan and Hera, who both nodded to tell her to go on.

Sabine took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly.

"When I was an Imperial cadet, we were sent on a scouting mission to another planet, and while we were there we encountered a temporary camp set up by who we thought were rebels. We began our search of the camp, with some regular Stormtrooper support. Me and a close friend of mine, Thras, went off to investigate one of these shacks and found a Rodian and his family hiding away at the back, in some kind of tiny communal garden. We tried to search them, but the Rodian got in our way, believing we were going to imprison his family. We ordered him to move, and he pulled out a stun blaster and shot me, but it only got me for a couple of seconds. Being a good little Imperial, Thras shot the Rodian dead. The shots made the others think we were under attack and so we all opened fire… and killed them all. Every. Last. One. Little over 300 were killed… and I killed many myself, when I threw a grenade into a building they were sheltering in… We were all joking and cheering about how we'd beaten the rebels so easily, when we were told it was a refugee camp. We'd massacred 300 defenceless people, including women and children… and only I seemed to care. Everyone was a bit down about it, but I went up to my commander and demanded to know why Imperial Intelligence had failed to discover the camp and verify what it was, but he just slapped me, told me not to question the Empire. Of course, I did that a couple more times and then everyone just started ignoring me, even Thras, who had, just days before, come into my room at night and told me he had shot the guy for me, because the Rodian had hurt me and so had to be killed. The instructors had told everyone to ignore me behind my back, and they did so, many probably without a second thought."

She took another deep breath.

"So that's why I couldn't talk to you properly. It was just… too close to my past. I couldn't shake the image of that burning camp filled with bodies after you told me what had happened. I wanted to dismiss everything that could link back to that, and everything seemed to be doing that. I'm sorry. It's not enough, but I'm sorry. Please come back. I don't hate you, not at all."

She leaned back from the radio and buried her face in her hands, ashamed of what she'd just admitted. Hera and Kanan both went over and put comforting arms around her.

"Why didn't you tell us before?" Hera asked softly.

"I… I thought you'd think of me as a monster… Because I'd killed so many innocent people…" Sabine struggled to say. She was upset, but not crying. She wouldn't let the horrors of the past upset her more.

"Not a chance," said Kanan. "We know you're not, and never will be."

"You're not a monster Sabine," said Ezra softly.

They all stared at the radio. Sabine had forgotten to stop transmitting, and none of them had any idea Ezra was listening; they'd planned to leave it as a message, which they knew he listen to.

"You didn't know what you were doing. If I had any idea about what you were going through, then I would've known that you didn't mean to be rude, or anything like that."

"So, you'll come back?" queried Zeb. "We can patch this up, you know, make it better."

"There's nothing for us to patch up involving this," came the reply. "I forgave you after every time you insulted me or rejected my concerns. And this goes for all of you. You're my family. I can't do anything but forgive you for what little you've ever done to hurt me."

Kanan asked next, "so you'll come back?"

There was an angry huff and the sound of something metal crashing down. When Ezra came back on, he was audibly more upset.

"Why do you have to make it so hard? I'm doing this to protect you from me."

"You don't need to. I know you'll never harm us. You pointed your lightsaber at Hera. You could've killed her, but you didn't. What does that tell you?"

"I tells me that I just barely managed to come to my senses before I killed someone else."

"It tells me that you care for us too much to let the Force Nexus control you outright. It tells us that you can't harm one of us, because…"

There was a beep and the transmission was closed at the receiving end.

"Looks like that's that." Said Zeb, depressed.

"I'm going to my room, ok?" Sabine got up to leave.

"If there is anything you need, Anything, you let me know, Ok Sabine?" Hera reassured Sabine. "Don't be too hard on yourself."

"I'm not going to. I'm going to think of a way to get Ezra back." Sabine left, a determined spark in her eyes.

Back on the moon, Ezra re-set the bed back to its original spot from where he'd kicked it. There was a slight dent in one of the supports now, meaning it was now slightly lopsided, but he ignored it, staring up at the stars through the skylight as he wondered what to do.

 _I have to do this to protect them_ he argued with himself.

 _But they desperately want you back_ he counterargued _. They'll probably get themselves hurt if you continue ignoring them._

 _They'll give up and go save the galaxy_ he tried to convince himself. _Safe from me and the nexus._

 _Maybe they were right, that you aren't fully under its power and can resist it to protect your friends._

He argued all night and never got one second of rest.


	5. Breakdown P5 - Reforming

Star Wars – Breakdown Part 5 – Rebuilding relationships

* * *

Ezra hadn't slept at all that night, so torn was he over the decision to leave and whether he should stay there. He wandered out early to watch the sunrise, then hopped onto the recently stolen speeder and drove out, trying to distract himself from the issue at hand. He wandered the undulling plains, looking for trouble, or even somewhere that he could make trouble. Nothing. The plain was devoid of life other than the grass swaying in the wind. He returned to base in a foul mood, which wasn't helped by the nexus prodding him every few minutes through the force.

The radio beeped once and he eagerly grabbed it and listened.

"This is Spectre one!" Kanan's voice came through the radio, "We are pinned down in the town centre by Imperial forces! We have wounded and need help right now! Is anyone there?"

Ezra lunged for his equipment and strapped on an E-11, loaded several spare rounds for that and the Cyler Rifle on his back, a pair of Thermal Imploders and, after some hesitation, his lightsaber that had been sitting and gathering dust in a corner while he tried to run from his problems. The Z-47 speeder was still warm from when he'd left and it shot off as soon as he was able.

"Hold on, I'm coming." Ezra whispered as the wind lashed his face, the bike going over its maximum safe speed of 180mph.

Several columns of smoke clawed the sky over the town, chasing after the space elevator that rose into the darkness of space. As Ezra reached the outskirts, he could smell the burning plastic and the scorches of blasters that pockmarked what seemed to be every wall. Here and there in the streets a toppled AT-DP walker or the burnt-out shell of a troop transport marked the passage of the rebels as they fled to the city centre, accompanied by the usual Stormtrooper bodies that could be found on most battlefields with the empire.

"Bring up the rocket launcher!" he could hear Kanan yell over the short-range comm. He was getting close, but what he saw when he turned the next corner made him stop. An AT-AT marched through the streets, just a block away from being able to fire at the rebels.

"Spectre 1, this is Spectre 6." Ezra reported into the radio, "I'm on my way to help."

He scrambled up the side of the nearest building and began chasing the AT-AT, almost not catching Kanan's reply.

"We've got 3 snipers on the rooftops shooting us up, and an AT-DP providing cover for the ground troops."

"Got it."

Ezra ran alongside the fearsome machine and threw himself off the edge of the building. He slammed into the walker's side and his fingers scrabbled for purchase as he began to slide down. He grabbed the gap between a panel and the armour and managed to haul himself up using that.

"3 snipers…" Ezra trailed as he unslung his Cyler rifle and aimed through the scope. A quick pull of the trigger killed one instantly. The second followed the same fate, but the 3rd turned and fired back, just missing Ezra's head.

"You're gonna wish you never did that," said Ezra just before he fired again. The 3rd sniper collapsed in a heap.

He smirked, satisfied as he drew his lightsaber and stabbed through the armour, cutting his way into the mechanical monster.

In the square, things weren't looking good. There were still many Stormtroopers left, with AT-DP walker support and an AT-AT on the way. Most rebels were down, injured or dead, and those that were somewhat alive were pinned down.

"Look!" Exclaimed Zeb from where he sheltered behind a crashed land speeder, "on the Walker!"

Kanan looked at the walker and just got a glimpse of Ezra jumping into the it.

"impeccable timing, as always." Kanan grinned.

The walker fired twice, eliminating most of the Imperial troops, and stunning the rest enough that they were quickly polished off by the remaining rebels. They watched as a green lightsaber pierced the neck of the walker and travelled around until the head fell off, landing with a thump and revealing a proud Ezra standing in the main section, lightsaber in hand. He quickly jumped down and the walker toppled almost exactly at the right time to give Ezra an epic landing. Several rebels applauded.

"Well done." Kanan grinned as they approached him, "never seen anything like that before."

"I learned from the best," Ezra smiled back.

"Kid, you weren't connected to the nexus at all, were you?" inquired Zeb, although he'd already guessed the answer.

"Not at all."

The kid looked so proud, Zeb thought. It was quite an impressive feat, although Zeb rated it under his previous stunt sniping on the speeder bike.

"Besides, I had a good distraction. It's nice to have a nice big target to draw fire away from me."

"Are you going to come back then?" Inquired Kanan.

Ezra's face fell, "I don't know."

"You've just proven that you can handle yourself without connecting to the nexus. You can come back without fear of hurting us."

"You'd never manage to beat us anyway." joked Zeb, "especially not me."

Ezra was still unsure, but then he heard a stun blaster activate behind him.

"Sab-" was as far as he got before she stunned him, although Kanan swore he rolled his eyes before he dropped.

"Was that really necessary?" sighed Kanan.

She grinned under her helmet, "Of course. I did say I would shoot him if necessary."

"I'm glad you decided to stun him and not shoot him."

"Trust me, I was tempted."

They got Ezra and were transported back to the fleet not long afterwards, where they put Ezra back into the medical ward.

* * *

Ezra woke up a few hours later to see the crew standing around him.

"was it really necessary to shoot me?" groaned Ezra.

"Yes!" Sabine, Zeb and Kanan all said at once.

"Besides, I did say I would." Sabine grinned wolfishly.

Zeb slaps him on the shoulder, right on a still-healing blaster burn, one which they didn't treat with bacta, and Ezra winces.

"Oops. Sorry kid. I was just quite impressed with how you took down an AT-AT by yourself."

"What, were the times I did that not good?" Kanan said, feigning indignity.

"Oh, they were just fine hun." Hera smirked, "But you have yet to snipe someone while on a moving speeder bike"

"Just fine?" they all laughed as he continued to pretend to be annoyed. "I guess I'll stop doing it then. Let Jedi Master Ezra sort it out."

Chopper beeped a thanks to Ezra for unintentionally distracting Zeb, who he zapped. He rolled off laughing as the burly Lasat gave chase.

"Anything you need, just ask Kanan through your bond." Hera smiled at Ezra before leaving the room.

"Save me! Save me from the fighter intelligence briefings!" Kanan called out as he was dragged away.

"You'll attend and you'll enjoy it!" Hera pretended to order.

"Yes captain…"

The door shut, leaving Ezra and Sabine together in the quiet room.

"Ezra. I need to speak with you." She said after a pause.

Ezra tried to sit up, but was held down by something on his left wrist.

"A handcuff?" he questioned. "Why am I handcuffed to the bed?"

He looked at her and gave an 'ah' of understanding.

"You convinced them to handcuff me to the bed so you could have your evil ways with me."

They both laughed for a bit, but then Sabine pressed on, determined to share whatever was on her mind.

"Ezra… about what happened… I'm sorry. I was completely out of order…"

He pulled her into a hug and squeezed tightly, "There's nothing for you to be sorry for. Don't beat yourself up about it."

They broke apart and Sabine punched him playfully on the shoulder, which still hurt quite a bit.

"Did I give you permission to do that?" she grinned.

He returned it, "do you really care that much?"

"Ha. No. Just don't get used to it. I am truly grateful for what you did for me. It's just… You're not the same kid we met on Lothal. And to be honest, I'm worried. Worried that the Ezra I knew is going to be gone for good."

"And that I'll hurt someone."

"I can't just trust someone blindly. Not after the academy. It's not that I don't want you around, but I want to trust you because you're family. I don't want to have to keep my other blaster under the pillow with me too."

"Sabine. Look at me."

She did so.

"I would rather die than hurt one of you."

"That's what I'm most worried about. If you do hurt one of us."

"Afraid that I'll run away again."

"Afraid you might kill yourself." She responded somewhat angrily.

"I won't let that happen."

She gazed into his eyes for several seconds.

"I know."

This time she was the one who embraced him, albeit briefly.

She got up to leave and paused by the doorframe, "don't tell anyone I have a blaster under my pillow. Or else."

"Yes, o great Mandalorian."

She came back several minutes later, this time more curious than anything else.

"Tell me, what is it like with the Force Nexus in your mind." Was the first thing she said.

He thought for a bit before relying, "I don't really know. It jabs me through my force connection at times, but most times I can ignore it fine. A few times it does it really badly, trying to break through into my mind. The time where I passed out in your room was one of them."

"Not your finest moment," she comments.

"No. But the 2 times it I've let it in it added so much power to me. I was practically buzzing at the fingertips."

"It definitely helped at the research base." Sabine meant it as a joke, but Ezra hung his head.

"It was the first time I'd used it and I was…" he trailed off when she hugged him.

"It's ok."

"No, it's not." Kanan said from the doorway, Hera and Zeb behind in the doorway.

The 2 teens broke apart, embarrassed.

Kanan slowly walked in, "That was a dark-side nexus, wasn't it?"

"Mostly." Ezra replied, having completely forgotten that Kanan thought it was neutral nexus until recently.

"Dark-side nexuses have a history of corrupting their users. Only 1 known dark side user has ever managed to successfully utilise a dark nexus and live, and he later became a Jedi."

"Yeah."

"Continually connecting to that nexus will kill you eventually. And because you're not Sith, it will consume you faster and because you're not ready, you will lose control and focus each time you use it."

"I had to do it to save us!" Ezra replied, indignant.

"But you almost killed Hera on your _second_ time using it. Each time you use it, you have to use more anger and hate to maintain control, slipping you closer to the dark side each time, until eventually you are so consumed by hate it will destroy you."

"That's why I ran away! So I wouldn't have to connect and put people at risk!"

"Just, promise me you won't connect again."

"I promise."

"Even if we're in a really bad spot."

"Even if we're in a really bad spot. Unless one of you is dying and my using it will…"

"EVER!"

"Fine. Ever."

"And this promise goes to everyone else in the room?"

"Yes."

Kanan sighed, "good. I'm sorry, but I had to make sure. Besides, after today, you've proved that you can handle yourself without it. And you didn't need to prove it."

He unlocked the handcuffs and left, shortly followed by Sabine.

"He means well," Said Hera, stepping over to the bed. "He just has a funny way of showing it. He's concerned about the entire crew and you specifically because of what's happened."

Ezra nods and she leaves too.

"Why were you here?" Ezra asked Zeb, who was trying to sneak out.

"Intimidation effect," The burly Lasat replied.

"And I'm supposed to be scared of you?"

"Yeah."

The Lasat made a big, comical scary face, getting a laugh from Ezra.

"We should get you to do that whenever we meet the Imperials again and they can laugh themselves to death while we steal whatever we need from them."

"Watch your mouth, you little loth rat. At this rate, I'll set Sabine loose on your bunk with her new stockpile of paints."

Ezra gasped. "You wouldn't dare!"

"No, I wouldn't. She'd paint mine too!"

They both laughed and headed to the bathroom, where Ezra's stuff was already waiting. With one crucial difference.

"Hey!" exclaimed Ezra. "Why is my toothbrush painted?"

The toothbrush was painted in an intricate manner, with lots of swirling flowers on a pink background.

Ezra stormed up to Zeb. "What the hell have you done to my toothbrush?"

The big Lasat struggled to talk he was laughing so hard. "I let Sabine have it. It was that or she'd paint our beds. She claimed it needed… beautifying."

At that moment, the culprit walked in, a big grin plastered over her face.

"So, how do you like it?" she smirked.

"As far as finesse and precision to detail goes, it's one of your best paintings. As far as overall idea and design goes… it needs to be more suitable for the user, as this user currently doesn't like pink flowery designs on his toothbrush," he replied.

She made a fake pouty face. "Aww… do you not like my paintings?"

"Uhh, it's not that I don't like them, it's just that…"

She playfully slugged him on the shoulder, "I'm just messing with you! It should just wash off, so you don't die of embarrassment whenever you try brush your teeth. And since when did you become such a smooth talker?"

"I reckon he started going to Lando for lessons after he saw you get chatted up by him." Interjected Zeb.

There was a simultaneous "NO!" from both parties, followed by a "I don't even like that guy" and a "He DID NOT chat me up!" from Ezra and Sabine respectively, again at the same time.

Sabine then grinned.

"I did a little redecorating for you too Zeb," she said sneakily, causing him to charge off down to his cabin pursued by Ezra, brushing teeth forgotten.

When they got to their shared Cabin, they found Zeb's wooden Lasat training helmet covered in a similar design.

"I swear, I'm gonna…" started Zeb before Ezra stuck out a hand to stop him.

"I have a plan," he whispered conspiritually.


	6. Breakdown P6 - The Talk, a Distress Call

Star Wars Rebels – E2 C6 – The Talk and a distress call

* * *

Night on the Ghost. The ship was silent as silent as a grave. In Sabine's room, things were out of place. Or just gone.

A datapad hovered by her face and switched on, waking her in an instant.

"What?" she mumbled as she struck out at whatever was holding the pad, only to hit empty air.

She grabbed the pad and it switched off automatically. She looked around and all of her paints, guns, anything not secured to the ship, was gone.

"I swear to god…" she grumbled as she leaped out of bed, still in her armour.

She stormed to Ezra's room to demand the return of her stuff, only to be greeted by 2 empty bunks.

"Ezra!" she almost yelled as she marched back into her room and looked up. All of her stuff was upside-down on the ceiling.

She spied around the 3 air vents until she found Ezra and then pulled him out.

"Copaani mirshmure'cye, vod?" she demanded, forgetting to speak in basic instead of Mandalorian.

"I don't know what that means," smiled Ezra as the stuff drifted back down to their original positions.

She dragged him up and practically hauled him out into the corridor, then went back and grabbed her gun from under her pillow.

"You know better than to disturb my sleep," she growled.

"It was just a prank! Besides, what are you going to do with that?"

She looked down and saw that she was holding a carved stick shaped like a gun. She hurled it at him, scoring a direct hit on his chest, then followed it up with a tackle, sending them both onto the floor.

"Good evening," said Kanan.

Sabine got off Ezra, letting him get up.

"Ezra, what were you doing in there?"

"Uh, just a prank," Ezra did his best to sound innocent.

Kanan motioned with his head. "Sabine, back to your room."

Sabine complied, leaving Ezra alone in the corridor with Kanan.

"Look, I didn't mean to cause any trouble, I was just getting back on Sabine for pranking me and Zeb," Ezra began before Kanan shushed him.

"You can't go into her room at night."

"I know…"

"I think I'm going to have to give you a talk."

"What kind of talk?" Ezra asked uneasily.

"THE Talk."

"No, Kanan, I definitely don't need to hear that talk."

Sabine could hardly supress her giggles as she listened in on Kanan giving Ezra 'the talk' despite his protestations. She opened the door and Ezra's mortified expression was too much. She burst out laughing and laughed so hard that she had to bend over because her sides hurt so much from laughing. Zeb, who'd been watching from down the corridor joined her and soon the ship was booming with laughter.

"What's going on?" Hera demanded to know as she came out of Kanan's room in her Pyjamas.

"Did you just come out of Kanan's room? At night?" Ezra asked back, already beginning to laugh.

"Uhh…" Hera trailed off as she realised that everyone had seen her do so. "Maybe."

The laughter from Zeb and Sabine intensified and Ezra joined in as Hera unconsciously put on a perfect 'caught in the act' face, complete with blushing cheeks.

"I, uh, think I'll go back to my bed," Kanan said, just as uncomfortable as Hera.

"No point, it's basically almost time to get up on a normal day. And I was going to let you all sleep in as well," replied Hera.

"Aww…" chorused Sabine, Ezra and Zeb.

"No. We're awake now and I'll be damned if I'm going to let Ezra sleep in past wake-up time again."

They all went back into their rooms to grab their stuff to change, except for Hera who went into Kanan's room and locked it before he could get in too. He stood waiting for Hera to finish while the others all changed in their rooms, except Sabine, who'd been sleeping in her armour again.

Hera finally finished. "All yours," she smiled.

* * *

Several minutes later, they stood by the airlock, waiting to dock with a MC40 cruiser to take on supplies and some more crew.

Rex stood smiling at door with Gregor, and the 2 were greeted quite warmly by the Ghost crew.

"So, what've I missed?" Rex inquired as they walked down to the common room. "Anything exiting?"

"Oh, you don't know the half of it," began Sabine.

They reached the common room and sat down or leaned against a comfortable wall.

"Where to start..." mused Kanan.

"Probably that mission to get the lightsaber hun," Hera smiled.

"Right. That mission..." groaned Ezra.

They proceeded to regale him with the tale of the mission to get Revan's lightsaber, followed by the encounter with the Inquisitors when they boarded the ship, right up till when Ezra ran away.

"So have I got this right?" interjected Rex. "The kid took on and entire base and 2 inquisitors, followed by lots of emotional trauma of being punished for saving you, took on 2 more inquisitors and then ran away after nearly killing Hera?"

"Pretty much," shrugged Ezra.

"I'm... amazed. You really know how to pick 'em. A kid who connected to a dark-side nexus and lived. Without killing anyone he knew and actually fighting off the nexus's influence to do so."

Kanan nodded. "I'm not sure it was a good thing though, connecting at all."

"Give him a break! Kid did great!" Laughed Gregor. "I wish I could do that!"

"Yeah, but then he ran away."

"Ah."

Ezra talked about his month living alone and hunting Imperials, until he got to the speeder chase.

"Ezra's learned quite well from your shooting lessons!" exclaimed Zeb. "You should've seen the shot he pulled off!"

"What shot?" asked Hera.

Ezra looked at Sabine and Zeb, flabbergasted. "You mean you DIDN'T tell them about it?"

"No, we kind of forgot that part," Zeb admitted sheepishly.

"Sabine?" She'd run off to her room. She came back with a small holodisc and a triumphant grin

"We'd recorded it, just like you asked," she grinned.

The device was plugged in and they watched as Ezra leaped over the phantom on the speeder and heard the exchange of words between them.

"Crazy Loth-rat," they heard Zeb mutter.

"Oh, you haven't seen the half of it Zeb!" Ezra called back.

They watched, open mouthed as Ezra stood on the moving bike, aimed and fired, sending the Scout Trooper flying and leaving the bike to hover along for several more seconds. Sabine paused the recording.

Hera looked like she was about to scold him. "Ezra, that was..."

"Amazing!" Gregor cut in first.

"I've gotta admit, that was quite something," laughed Rex.

Hera noticed Kanan grinning. "Oh, not you too!"

"What? You have to admit, that was quite cool."

Hera paused, then smiled. "Yes, that was quite cool."

They continued the story, up until the point where Ezra was taken back to the ship.

"I still don't think it was entirely necessary for you to stun me Sabine," commented Ezra.

"Maybe not, but I enjoyed it," She elbowed him. "Payback for ditching us in the first place,"

Rex laughed. "You did have it coming kid."

The intercom buzzed and a message came through. From Fulcrum.

"I have an urgent task. A rebellion MC80 Liberty-class capital ship has just been disabled near your sector, on a special mission involving defecting Kuat ship-designers. They left with a prototype starfighter called the X-Wing. The empire wants those plans back and are on their way to disable it right now.

"Copy Fulcrum. Ghost out."

They rushed to their positions, ready for the coming mission.

* * *

Apologies that this came so late.

"Copaani mirshmure'cye, vod?" means "Are you looking for a smack in the face mate?" Yes I did look that up.


	7. Breakdown P7 - 212th and X-Wings

SWR – Breakdown P7 – 212th and X-Wings.

* * *

The Ghost dropped out of Hyperspace into a cloud of debris.

"Damn," Sabine whistled. "Looks like we missed the explosions."

"Yup. Looks like it was a pretty one-sided fight though," replied Rex.

It was true. The wreckage of several Nebulon B-2s, Correlian Corvettes and a pair of MC40 cruisers tumbled in the blackness, missing chunks of hull, surrounded by countless destroyed fighters. By contrast, there were wrecks of 2 Carrack cruisers and a Lancer frigate amongst the destroyed rebel fleet. Although there were quite a few TIE-fighters too, the rebel losses far outmatched those of the Empire.

"There must've been more Star Destroyers," commented Kanan as they spotted one heading towards something at the other end of the debris field.

"We should follow it. It's probably going to the MC80. What was it called again?" Said Ezra.

"The Soterion. Salvation. And are we really going to do the 'Follow the space creature again?' path?" replied Hera.

They manoeuvred through the debris field rapidly, the clouds of metal shielding them from the scanners of the ISD-I class Star Destroyer.

"There it is!" exclaimed Sabine.

The MC80 Liberty – class Capital Ship drifted, helpless. Half of its right 'wing' was missing and its surface was pockmarked and there were large holes in the ship. It's engines still glowed with faint flickers of power from the damaged reactor.

"Hmm…" said Sabine. The ship's out of the debris field. We'll be detected if we fly the Ghost out. Same for the Phantom."

"So, what are we going to do"? asked Rex.

Sabine grinned. "Who's up for some flying?"

5 figures shot out of the debris field, suited up with Jetpacks and suits. They drifted towards the ship and watched a series of assault gunships fly into the ship's starboard hanger.

"Looks like we've got company," commented Sabine.

"When do we not?" replied Ezra.

They flew into one of the many hull breaches. A lone body lay on the ground.

"Gravity must still be online," Ezra said.

"Oh really?" Sabine replied sarcastically as she touched down. "Airlock looks intact too."

Sabine, Ezra, Rex, Kanan and Gregor entered the airlock, and then the ship. Some lights were still powered, flickering as the ship's damaged reactor struggled on. Panels hung from the walls and wires hung from the ceiling.

"I wonder how they managed to disable the ship this badly without destroying it," queried Ezra.

"Their weapon systems are much upgraded from what we had in the clone wars, and their command crews are still very effective. They would've been able to do this," replied Rex. "We certainly were in the clone wars."

They proceeded down the halls at a jog, searching for the crew while making their way to the port hanger. They stopped when they heard blaster fire.

"Hear that?"

"Yeah. We need to move."

"OOOO, goodie! A fight!" cackled Gregor.

They ran to the hanger door and came out on a strut above the main landing pad. Below, a battle was raging between the rebels and Stormtroopers with yellow markings. It wasn't a fair fight; rebels were being downed more than the Stormtroopers and they had been pressed back to the centre of the hanger. 4 civilians, presumably the defecting engineers, cowered behind some kind of star fighter they'd never seen before, most likely the X-Wing.

They dropped down to join the rebel defence line.

"Where'd you come from?" one of them asked, surprised by their sudden appearance.

"We're just dropping in to say hi," replied Ezra as they began returning fire.

The battle continued, the orange-stiped Stormtroopers returning fire as effectively as the rebels, but with the help of the Ghost crew, they managed to hold the line.

Until he showed up.

A Stormtrooper with an orange sun-shield over his eyes and a jetpack suddenly burst out from the ranks and flew over their right flank, accurate fire massacring the few rebels there. Sabine fired at him, but he rolled to the side mid-air and returned fire, catching her on the helmet twice, then flying back out of sight.

"Who the hell was that?" yelled Ezra.

"Someone I know," muttered Rex as he stepped out from behind his cover and walking towards the Stormtroopers, helmet off.

"What the hell are you doing?" Sabine shouted. She noted she was saying that a lot more these days, rather depressingly.

"CODY!" Rex yelled. "IT'S REX!"

"Cease fire!" the order came immediately.

The jetpack figure flew out and landed in front of Rex.

"Cody. Didn't think you'd still be on active duty."

"Still have to do my job as a soldier Rex. And you've put on weight. Civilian life treating you well then?"

"It was, but then I found something else to do."

"Helping the rebels, I see."

"Cody, you know this isn't right, what the Empire's doing. What they did to the Jedi.

"We had no choice Rex."

"I know. I removed my inhibitor chip, as did Gregor and Wolf."

"Gregor?"

"Clone Commando. Survived the war somehow, and we picked him up in the outer rim somewhere."

"Right… What were you doing there?"

"We kinda quit the Empire."

"So I noticed."

"It was the right thing to do."

Cody sighed. "I still have to fulfil my duty as a soldier. Plus, I'm not sure the Empire would take too kindly to me running off with expensive modified armour and a custom rifle."

Rex laid a hand on Cody's shoulder. "Come on, you should consider it. Make up for what you did."

"What good would it do? Besides, I have a loyalty to my men. I can't abandon them."

"Very well," They clasped arms. "Good luck."

"Try not to die."

They split and walk back to their respective lines. Rex shook his head.

"Stubborn bastard. He should've joined us."

"Doesn't matter now. We're the back-up," said Kanan as he and Ezra stepped out from cover, lightsabers drawn. The fire they waited for never came and a Cody's voice boomed out from the back.

"Just this one-time Rex, you can go. Take the fighter and the engineers and go."

"Thanks Cody. I appreciate it."

Sabine got into the new fighter while the others piled into an old LAAT transport that the techs assured them was atmospherically secure. They flew out of the hanger and Sabine pressed a button with an image of unfurling wings and the 2 wings of the craft split into 4, each with a long laser on each wing.

Sabine whistled. "Impressive. Built-in hyperdrive, quad firing lasers. It looks like it can take a hit."

"It's much better than just that," one of the technicians said proudly. "It has a torpedo launcher, a shield generator, and the 2 different wing modes change its function."

"Such as?"

"When the S-foils are closed, the craft moves faster, but they can only fire when locked in attack position."

Sabine gave a short laugh, more of appreciation than anything.

"If what you're saying is true, then it is one hell of a machine!"

"Looks like you'll get a chance to test it out," said Kanan. "I've got 6 fighters closing in, fast."

Sabine yanked the controls and pulled the ship out in a rapid turn to face the TIE-fighters. There was a brief exchange of fire and the X-Wing came out unscathed, tinged slightly blue where the shields were hit, and 2 TIEs went spinning off, to exploded seconds later. She swung back much faster than the TIEs and soon destroyed another. The 4th one managed to turn enough to get some shots off, but it was outmatched in turning ability and Sabine destroyed it with ease. But where were the other 2?

"Sabine! Behind you!" Ezra called as a TIE flew out of the debris field and pounded her shields. As soon as she turned to face it, another appeared behind her and fired again, destroying the shields and scoring a hit on the top-right engine, causing the craft to lurch sideways as the thrust became unbalanced.

"Haar'chak!" she swore in her native language. "Damn it!" she managed to re-gain control and turn to face the TIEs, who were closing in for the kill. The ship took some hits, but the forward deflectors were still up and she destroyed them both.

"I think the rear deflectors might need some work," Sabine commented as she pulled up alongside the LAAT. "Other than that, it's a great craft. It can take a hit too."

The 2 rebel craft linked up with the Ghost and the LAAT connected to the Ghost.

"I'm assuming that's the craft we're here for," said Hera as they got into a rough formation.

"Yup," replied a pleased Sabine. "I had a little field experience. It's a great craft and it can take a hit."

"You mean you were hit?"

"Yeah. They kind of tricked me into turning to one of them as he fired at my engines and as I turned to face him another managed to knock out the shields and hit one of the engines."

"It has shields!?"

"I know, right! It's also got a torpedo launcher and a hyperdrive."

"I think I'm in love already," Hera smiled to herself as she listened.

They jumped to hyperspace to report their success to the fleet.

* * *

The fleet was waiting, welcoming as ever. The Corvettes enveloped the carrier just off the edge of an asteroid field and several fighters rushed off to join them. Below them was a brilliant blue ocean world, interspersed with small tropical islands.

"Command, this is Spectre 2. We've got the prototype fighter and the engineers. I'm afraid the other fleet was a complete loss though," Reported Hera.

"That's… unfortunate to hear. But at least we got the fighter and the engineers back, so it's a good outcome nonetheless," Commander Sato replied.

The Ghost and the X-Wing landed in the hanger, greeted by a repair crew and some pilots. The LAAT broke off and landed in the centre of the hanger, large side door opening to reveal the other Spectres and the engineers.

"That's a pretty cool ship, I have to say," commented Wedge as he went up to the X-Wing. "What does it have?"

"Oh, nothing much," said Sabine as she got out. "You know, hyperdrive, missile launcher, shields, that kind of stuff."

His eyes widened. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Nope! And it can take a hit too!"

The pilots and many of the repair crew crowded around the X-Wing in amazement, their whistles and chatter to be cut off by a sudden alarm. The lights went to combat-state.

"All pilots, to your ships! Imperial ships incoming!" the speakers boomed.

"Looks like you get to see it in action," grinned Sabine as she clambered back aboard and put the flight helmet on.

The X-Wing, and several Y-Wings and A-Wings lifted off and launched into space.

"Let me take the lead, boys," Sabine ordered. "I've got the shields."

"Say again Spectre 5. Did you say shields?" one of the pilots asked, shocked.

"I did indeed Phoenix 7," she replied, somewhat smugly.

"What about the damage to your top-right engine?"

"That's what the other 3 are for. Say, Spectre 1, could you ask the technician whether the missile launcher is loaded?"

"Sure thing 5. Wait one," Kanan replied as he went to ask. He came back a few moments later, "That's affirmative 5, the launchers are loaded to the max. 6 proton missiles ready to destroy some Imperial ships. Vors Voorhorian, formerly of the Incom Corporation hopes you enjoy flying it again."

"I'm guessing he designed it."

"Yes."

"Tell him this thing is beautiful."

"All wings, check in," ordered Commander Sato.

"Interceptor wing ready," Wedge answered.

"Bomber Wing ready," answered the bomber commander.

"Ghost is ready," said Hera as it detached to join the fighters.

"X-Wing ready," commented Sabine. "All by myself."

"You know I could join your wing," Wedge said jokingly. "Keep you company."

Sabine sighed, but more in amusement than annoyance. "That's cute, but I'd have to watch your back the entire time. The number of times I'd have to save it would probably lose us the battle."

"Ouch," he replied, not meaning it.

"You were asking for it," commented Phoenix 7.

Commander Sato's voice cut through their banter. "All units, eyes front. Contact is dropping out of Hyperspace."

A single Imperial-I Star Destroyer dropped out of hyperspace, with a Gozanti cruiser just behind it. A squadron of TIE/IN interceptors broke off from the cruiser, supported by a large number of TIE/LN Fighters from the Star Destroyer. A squad of TIE/sa Bombers also launched, their objective to take out the carrier.

"Interceptors, target their fighters. Ghost, go after the bombers. X-Wing, you'll support the bomber's run on the Star Destroyer's shield generator and bridge," ordered Sato.

The cruiser turned and jumped away, while the interceptors and the Ghost broke off to attack their respective targets. Small explosions began to litter the void of space as the TIE fighters and A-Wings became embroiled in an intense dogfight, and the Ghost pursued the bombers who were trying to weave their way through the wall that the Correllian corvettes were forming to protect the carrier.

Sabine grunted as a Y-Wing next to her exploded and rocked her ship. "Phoenix 4 is down!" she yelled, struggling to stay on-course.

"I'm GAAH" yelled one of the A-Wing pilots as his ship was hit and he crashed into a TIE fighter.

"There goes Phoenix 5!" shouted Wedge.

"Fighters, keep buying the fleet time! I have a plan, and I need you to distract that Star Destroyer."

"Yes sir!"

Several seconds later, 3 Hammerhead corvettes warped out of space next to the Star Destroyer and rammed its neck, bending the bridge at an odd angle.

"Bombers! Hit the neck!"

The 3 Y-wings and the X-Wing unleashed several a volley of proton torpedoes, exploding the neck and sending it flying off into space. But the ship kept on firing with deadly accuracy, and a Correllian corvette exploded, leaving a gap for the bombers to get through. 6 TIE interceptors fell in behind them and gave chase, forcing the bomber group to split and try to lose the interceptors in the asteroid field.

"That Star Destroyer is still operational!" yelled a Corvette commander as its shields failed. The 2nd corvette exploded seconds later.

"Commander Sato! I think I have an idea!" yelled Ezra.

"What is it?"

"We use the Hammerheads to flip the Star Destroyer on its side, giving the bombers a clear shot at the main reactor, then they can push it into the asteroid field."

"That could work… OK, we'll do it. Bombers, move back out so you can fire all of your remaining torpedoes as soon as the ship is flipped."

The Hammerheads flipped the Star Destroyer with some difficulty, and then backed off a bit, covering the bombers with their guns.

Sabine growled in frustration as the bomber next to her was hit and tumbled into an asteroid. She turned, trying to get a shot on the reactor. The 2 remaining Y-Wings launched theirs and pulled away, already out of the scarce proton torpedoes that their rebellion always lacked. She fired at the interceptor that pulled in in front of her as he did the same and the X-Wing just about avoided crashing into it as it exploded.

"Get these fighters off of me!" Sabine yelled as her shields took another hit, dropping to dangerously low levels. She pulled the trigger and 2 torpedoes shot forward, blasting open a small part of the covering dome and exposing the reactor. She aimed again, but the close explosions were constantly throwing off her aim.

"I need a little cover!"

One of the corvettes pulled in just behind her, buying her valuable time as the fighters pulled away to avoid crashing. She aimed carefully with the targeting computer.

"Sabine! Get out of there! You're going to crash!" Wedge yelled.

"Almost there…" she ignored him. She pulled the trigger and yanked the controls back, missing the astonishing explosion as the reactor detonated, too focused on not crashing on the Star Destroyer.

She gasped as she narrowly avoided hitting the edge of the Star Destroyer. A quick check proved her worst fears; the stabilisation module was damaged, causing the ship to lean 'down'. She could barely hold the ship in place as she watched the Star Destroyer get pushed into the asteroid field, and its subsequent detonation vaporising half the ship, leaving the remaining 2 chunks to be ground down by asteroids.

She flew back to the carrier and landed. There were depressingly few fighters remaining in the hanger, 8 in total, 2 of which were Y-Wings, all damaged in some form or another. They'd started with almost 38 pilots and 30 ships.

Sabine landed and took off her helmet, opening the hatch. She clambered out and down the ladder that the shocked repair crew brought over.

"Sabine, are you OK?" asked Wedge when she got down.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little shaken," she replied more confidently than she felt. "What were our losses?"

"We lost 3 of our corvettes to the Star Destroyer and a squadron of TIE bombers, and the Hammerhead that pulled in behind you lost its command crew when one of the TIE interceptors crashed into it. As for the fighter crews, aside from a couple of damaged ones we're working on recovering, this is everyone that made it out alive."

Sabine gazed around the hanger, shocked. There were the 4 crew from the surviving Y-Wings, Wedge, her, and 5 other pilots.

"This is all that's left?"

He nodded solemnly. "The Ghost crew made it back fine though. Hera is currently talking to Sato with Kanan, and the others I think are in the common room of the carrier."

Sabine nodded and sighed. "I guess I'll go see them. First I need to check out the ship."

They walked around the back and Wedge whistled.

"Damn… how were you able to fly that thing?"

The back of the craft was a jagged mess, bits of wiring and scraps of metal hanging out. The left engines were both damaged and the top-right engine was just gone entirely.

"Talk about taking a hit… I'm amazed that thing didn't just blow up," she commented, just as surprised.

"We'll get it fixed fast enough," one of the engineers, whom she assumed was Vors Voorhorian, said as he walked over. "Although, I'm impressed, if I do say so myself."

"Vors, you have made a game-changing craft," she smiled at him. "Thank god you decided to join the good guys."

He gave a slight laugh. "Yeah. I think this is better in Rebellion hands. The Empire doesn't need more fighters."

She walked off, then stopped. "Tell me, can I paint it?"

He smiled. "It would be an honour if you could. It's basically your ship now."

She made her way to the common room, where she found Ezra, Zeb and Chopper.

"Hey 'Bine," greeted Ezra greeted.

"Hey," she replied absentmindedly. "Wait, did you just call me 'Bine?"

He smiled at her. "Do I not get to call you that?"

She punched him on the shoulder.

"Ow! I'll take that as a no."

She made herself a quick cup of caf, then collapsed in a chair, drained and slightly tired by the battle and the losses they'd taken.

"Are you ok?" asked Zeb, concerned.

"I'm just thinking about what we lost in this battle," she replied, sipping her caf.

"How bad was it?"

"There are 10 pilots left, 12 if you include me and Hera."

"Twelve?" exclaimed Ezra, aghast.

"Yup. And 9 ships, not including the Ghost, all of which have sustained damage in some form or other. Aside from that, we lost 3 Correllian corvettes totally and one of the Hammerheads is missing its bridge, so that makes 4."

They sat quietly, pondering the loss of most of their fleet. That meant they had 3 corvettes, the Ghost, 9 fighters and the carrier left, the latter of which didn't really count because it had so little armament.

Hera walked in. "Sabine! You're ok!"

"Was there any doubt?" grinned Sabine tiredly.

"Yes. After I saw the interceptors shred the back of your craft, I thought you were going to crash into the Star Destroyer."

Sabine shook her head as Hera sat down with them. "Not a chance. That craft is too good. What's the news on the rest of the rebel fleet?"

"They're sending a task force to help recover the engineers, but Fulcrum's contacted us as well. The Empire as sending one of their own to make sure we don't get away with the only remaining set of plans for the X-Wing."

"So, I guess we'd better get out of here quickly then," said Ezra.

"I'm afraid not. The carrier's hyperdrive is damaged. A bomber got through our defence and destroyed it, so we're stranded here until help arrives."

"Karabast" Zeb and Ezra said in unison.

"Language!" scolded Hera. "We should all have a rest, recover from the battle. We'll need it if we're to survive the next battle."

Sabine yawned, suddenly tired. "I'm going for a shower and going to bed. Ezra, want to help me paint the X-Wing tomorrow?"

"Sure!" he grinned as he got up too.

The crew split up and headed their separate ways, each mentally preparing themselves for the coming fight.

I hope you enjoyed it! This is a little overdue, but life is getting in the way. Apologies.

Favorite if you enjoyed and LMK what else you think about the series, if there are any points that need clarification and such.


	8. Breakdown P8 - Major Engagement & Crash

SWR – Breakdown P8 – Major Engagement and Crashing.

* * *

Sabine lay under the X-Wing, carefully spraying a starbird onto the underside of it, while Ezra painted some simple blue stripes along the side of the craft, lacking the artistic talent of Sabine. They'd been doing it for a couple of hours now, enjoying each others company and hopefully releasing some of the tension between the 2 of them.

Sabine hauled herself out from under the fighter and examined it. They'd done a good job, she thought. The fighter had 6 blue stripes down the side of the forward bit with the cockpit on, each one the mirror image of the one on the other side. The wings and main body had been painted a mixture of red and black, with a colourful purplish starbird at the base of each 'wing' and some blue highlights. The guns and engines were painted in an asymmetrical mixture of colours, which stood out from the wings. They'd yet to paint the rest of the cockpit area, which would be black, but they'd managed to do all of the rest.

"Looking good Sabine," commented Ezra as he finished with the stripes.

"Needs a little work on the cockpit, but other than that, it's great!" she said happily. The few hours spent painting had allowed them to focus on something instead of brooding on the previous, devastating battle.

Wedge and Hera walked over.

"I like it," Wedge whistled. "Can you do mine?"

"They could do everyone's and you could be the flying circus," joked Hera. "Besides, Ezra's only helping because Sabine asked him."

"Am not," Ezra replied huffily.

"I'm just kidding," she laughed. "Now, I need to head to the bridge. Our reinforcements should be arriving soon."

A Nebulon B-2, 2 MC40s, several Correllian corvettes and a MC80 'Wingless' dropped out of hyperspace just at the edge of the asteroid field.

"Ok, they're ahead of schedule," she sighed, annoyed by the disruption to the timetable.

She walked off. "I'll meet you in the common room soon for a quick cup of caf."

The 3 rebels looked at the new arrivals as they swooped in to join the fleet. The MC40s took up flanking positions around the carrier and the B-2 docked with it. The MC80 'Wingless' turned to face away from the carrier, guarding against threats.

"I can't wait for the next Star Destroyer to show up and be faced with this fleet," laughed Sabine. "Those Mon Calamari ships are nasty things. Perfect for destroying Imperials."

"All pilots, report to the hanger area! All pilots, report to the hanger area!" the voice over the intercom came.

"Guess that's out call Wedge. See you Ezra," Sabine said as they began jogging to the meeting area.

"Yeah. I will," he sighed, wishing he could join them.

Ezra wandered over to the common room to find Rex, Gregor, Hera, Kanan, Zeb and Chopper already talking about what they should do.

"I still think we should set up our bombers to ambush the Imperial fleet," argued Rex.

"There are 2 of them! 3 if you include Sabine!" Hera argued back. "They have 6 torpedoes between them. A single volley, if they don't get shot down first."

"What's this about?" inquired Ezra.

"We're just discussing strategy," replied Kanan.

"Yeah, 'discussing'" said Zeb, annoyed. "It's just been those 2 arguing the entire time."

"No, that won't work!" Hera yelled.

Ezra sighed. "Why are they bothering? The fleet commander that's just arrived has taken over."

"Tell that to them."

The sirens suddenly wailed on the ship. "Enemy contacts detected!"

They rushed to the nearest forward viewport and watched as a Star Destroyer dropped out of hyperspace. And another. And another. Several Carrack cruisers and a pair of Lancer frigates joined them.

"Oh great. An entire battlegroup," groaned Hera. "Just what we needed."

They rushed to the Ghost and got to their positions. They launched just after the fighters did and 2 swarms of fighters, one from each side, met in the middle.

"Spectre 2 to Spectre 5, escort the bombers to the nearest Star Destroyer! The new craft that have just joined us have Ion torpedoes, so we could disable them!"

"Copy that," Sabine replied as she broke off and joined the bomber wing. They flew onwards, pursued by several TIEs.

"X-wing! Can you help us out here?" asked one of the pilots at the back of the formation, where the TIEs were hitting the worst.

"Affirmative," she replied as she swung the X-Wing around and began firing at the TIEs. They'd already lost a bomber to them. Correction, make that 2 bombers. She fired several rapid bursts and hit 2 TIEs, sending them cartwheeling into each other.

The bomber group continued onwards towards the nearest Star Destroyer, constantly harassed by fighters, while the main bulk of the fighters battled it out in a large ball between the 2 sides. The 2 MC40s broke off to the sides, supported by 4 corvettes, while the MC80 and Hammerheads hung back with the carrier. The remaining Correllian Corvettes shot off to the sides in a pincer movement, the ball of fighters between the 2 groups.

"Fighters, break off and head directly for their ships," the new commander ordered.

As soon as they did, the corvettes fired into the mass of Imperial fighters, their pilots bemused by the rebels fleeing towards their own ships. The rebel fighters broke off to duel with the survivors or the new ones coming out of the hangers of the Star Destroyers. The corvettes and cruisers continued their attack on the Star Destroyers, the left group supporting the bombers, while the right group pressed on.

"MC40s, sever the head."

The 2 Cruisers put on their max speed and shot towards the neck of the nearest Star Destroyer, reversing thrusters at the last minute before they became wedged between the head and the body. The turbolasers were too slow to track them and they hammered the 'neck' of the Star Destroyer until it snapped off. 2 Hammerheads rammed its side and exposed its reactor shielding, inviting a barrage of fire from the MC40s. The MC80 drove forward suddenly, right between the 2 Star Destroyers, every single available gun firing at the 2 ships. The bomber group got through and unleashed a dozen Ion bombs, disabling the Star Destroyer. The 2 helpless ships were savaged by the MC80's turbolasers, collapsing and breaking apart under the withering barrage, carcasses bursting into flame or disintegrating entirely. The 3rd Star Destroyer continued firing, the support ships rallying around it as protection.

"Phoenix squadron! Rally on me!" ordered Hera.

"Copy Phoenix leader," replied Wedge.

5 A-Wings, 2 Y-Wings and Sabine's X-Wing fell in behind the Ghost.

"We're going to swing round, maybe disable its engines and communications. Then we'll hit their support vessels as hard as we can."

The MC40s took up flanking positions on either side of the MC80, special shields leaving them completely unscathed. The surviving Corvettes rallied with them, providing a defensive screen as they charged forward. The fighters not part of Phoenix squadron divided into their squads, except for the few that were still destroying the surviving TIEs.

Ezra felt elated for a bit. They'd outwitted the Imperial fleet and destroyed 2 Star Destroyers for the cost of a corvette and some fighters.

"All ships, advance at flank speed," the new rebellion commander ordered. "Let's run over their mongrel hides!"

The rebel fleet suddenly accelerated to full speed, catching the Imperials unaware with their risky manoeuvre. The corvettes began duking it out with each other while the MC40s broke through and flanked on either side of the Star Destroyer, sides tilted so they could full-on broadside the Imperial ship. The MC80 proceeded right down the middle, firing at the bridge. The few remaining TIE fighters tumbled out of control as they were overwhelmed.

"Nice work guys! We've got this one in the bag!" Cheered Ezra.

The Devastator warped out of hyperspace.

"You just had to say that, didn't you?" sighed Rex.

* * *

The Devastator flew forward, point slicing through the MC40 that got it its path. The 2 halves caught fire and tumbled away, trailing debris and bodies. The Devastator's front was barely dented.

"Where the hell did that come from?" yelled Hera.

"It must've been a trap!" Kanan shouted back.

"Kanan…" started Ezra.

"I know Ezra."

The cold had returned.

The Imperial ships suddenly began firing with better accuracy, just emphasising Kanan's point about it being a trap. The MC80's shields began to flicker as it suddenly took a withering barrage of fire from 2 Star Destroyers. Another warped out, passing inches away from the back of the bait Star Destroyer and firing all its weapons at the remaining MC40.

"All ships, fall back," ordered the voice as a 4th Star Destroyer jumped in, forming a semi-circle around the Rebel ships.

"You heard him Phoenix squadron. Fall back. Get to the Carrier and prepare to jump to hyperspace," said Hera regretfully.

The rebel ships broke and did what they could to flee. A corvette jumped out through the gaps between the Star Destroyers, but the next one to try that was dashed against the side of the Star Destroyer closest to it. The second MC40 attempted to ram the 4th Star Destroyer, but it was shot to pieces and the bits that impacted didn't deflect the ship even a little. The Imperial support ships massacred the rebel fighters as they tried to escape. A few fighters got out and jumped away, or managed to disable a frigate with ion torpedoes, but it was hopeless.

"Look!" Exclaimed Sabine. "An Imperial shuttle heading for the carrier!"

Ezra squinted and saw the shuttle fly along towards the disabled carrier, using it as a shield from the Nebulon B-2 docked to it. It was surrounded by fighters of various sorts.

"Phoenix squad, take out that shuttle! We'll go in the extract the engineers," ordered Hera.

The Ghost shot forward and skidded to a stop in the hanger, Kanan, Ezra, Gregor and Rex ready in the cargo hold.

Chopper beeped and opened the door as soon as it was safe to do so and they leaped out, charging towards the Engineer's last known position.

"Guys, the shuttle managed to dock," reported Sabine, annoyed.

"Copy. Get yourselves into the asteroid field and…"

Hera didn't get to finish her sentence as a flaming A-Wing shot into the hanger and exploded, showering the Ghost in metal fragments.

"I have to break off," grunted Sabine. Hera could hear the TIEs firing at her. "I'm heading down to the surface with Phoenixes 8 and 11. Maybe I can lose them in-atmosphere." There was an explosion. "Make that just Phoenix 8. Phoenix 3 and Phoenix 5 have managed to break off and somewhat land in the Nebulon's hanger, they were reporting severe damage."

So Wedge and a Y-Wing team were safely inside the Nebulon.

"What of the others?" Hera asked.

There was a pause.

"They're gone."

Hera balled her hand into a fist and dropped her forehead onto the dashboard. Almost all of Phoenix squadron was gone.

Ezra, Kanan, Rex and Gregor rushed through the empty corridors, hoping to secure the connection to the Nebulon B-2 before the Imperials got there. They rounded a corner to be greeted by 8 armed rebels holding an intersection.

"Where are the engineers?" asked Kanan as they ran up.

"Almost here sir," one of them replied. "Their escorting team has reported Imperial contact, but they're on their way."

"Good. And Commander Sato?"

"Already on board."

The escort team came charging down the corridor ahead, blaster fire pursuing them.

"Get the engineers on board!" one of them yelled as they turned to face down the Stormtroopers.

4 501st Stormtroopers came around the corner firing, but were at a disadvantage and only got 1 of the rebels before they died. Several more came, exchanging blaster fire down the narrow corridor, but the rebels triumphed and forced them back. An ominous red glow appeared at the end of the corridor just as the engineers entered the connecting tunnel.

"Vader," snarled Kanan.

"Anakin," said Rex as he walked forward.

"Wait, where are you going?" asked Ezra.

"To talk to Anakin Skywalker," Rex replied, brushing his way through the rebels and standing alone in the corridor.

Vader walked around the corner and stopped.

"Anakin. We need to talk."

"Anakin is dead, Rex." Vader replied. "He died and I came out of it. Like a Phoenix."

That last part was a slight jab at the namesake of the squadron, and Ezra bristled.

"I'm willing to give you a chance Rex. We served together in the Clone Wars. We can serve together now."

"You know what the Empire is doing is wrong. You can still fix what you've done."

Vader looked at him, breathing. "No. I can't."

He continued his advance down the corridor and the rebels opened fire, covering Rex as he re-joined Kanan and Ezra. He contemptuously flicked aside the blasters shot at him and returned 2, catching the shooters in the head.

"All on board. Head back to the Ghost and get out of here," ordered Commander Sato.

"Easy enough," said Ezra.

"I'm afraid we won't be able to join you sir. We have to make sure the connector detaches properly," said one of the troopers. "You get out of here."

They looked at the trooper, shocked.

"Go!"

The Ghost crew ran head-on back to the Ghost.

"That was eventful," Gregor said sarcastically. 2 Jedi and 2 clones run over to talk to Vader and then run back. What's the fun in that?"

"It's not always about fun," snapped Kanan, angry at having to leave to troopers.

Back in the corridor, Vader cleaved his way through the rebels. He grabbed one and threw him into another, stabbed one, deflected a blaster bolt and grabbed the last one by the neck just after he pulled the release lever. There was a sudden silence, punctuated by a gentle thud as the connector detached from the carrier.

"You'll never win," the trooper spat.

Vader crushed his throat and walked back to his shuttle, leaving the small massacre behind him.

The Ghost lifted off as soon as possible and shot out of the hanger, just in time to see the MC80 implode after being pounded on by 3 Star Destroyers. The Devastator was making their way towards them, destroying the odd rebel ship as it went. Turbolasers began turning to shoot the Nebulon.

"We are jumping out," said Commander Sato. "Good luck."

The Nebulon vanished as it entered hyperspace. Hera swung the Ghost around to the planet.

"Sabine, are you there?" she asked.

* * *

Sabine had been having a very bad few minutes. They'd swooped down to just above the waves, pursued by TIEs, until Phoenix 8 went too low and crashed into the water. Then it was just her, weaving in and out of the waves, pursued by 3 TIE interceptors. They weren't quite as good as her at flying, but they were getting hits and the X-Wing's shields were slowly draining. The spray thrown up from their missed shots was an annoyance as it temporarily distorted the sea in front of her and several times she almost joined Phoenix 8 in the ocean.

"Sabine, are you there?"

"Am I glad to hear your voice," she sighed in relief. "I'm being pursued by 3 interceptors and I can't shake them."

She gave a cry of alarm as she was hit again and the shields flickered off.

"My shields are down!"

"Hang on Sabine, we're coming," said Ezra.

She continued flying, S-foils almost touching the surface of the water as she quickly took cover under a breaking wave, hoping for a shield recharge. Nothing. The generator was burnt-out.

"I'm going to need that help pretty fast."

Sweat trickled into her eye and she blinked it away as she shot out of the breaker, TIEs waiting above. A burst of fire hit her and something shook free.

"I've lost my number 2 engine!" she reported, trying to sound calm. There was another impact and the X-Wing began dipping again. "I've lost my stabilizers."

They could hear the hint of panic in her voice.

"Where are you guys?"

Another hit and suddenly the craft powered down. Sabine was flung against the controls and she hit her head hard, stunning her.

"Sabine? We just saw an explosion, what happened? Sabine?"

She quickly regained her wits. "I've just lost all power…" The ship was rolling slowly as she tried to move it. Nothing.

"Where are you!?" she called desperately.

"There she is!" pointed Rex as they swooped through a cloud layer and saw the X-Wing drift lower and lower, 2 trails of smoke coming from the engines and damaged internal functions.

"Sabine, we're almost there. Just a few more seconds."

Sabine saw an island rush forward to meet her.

"I think it's too…"

The transmission broke off into static as the X-Wing impacted and carved a trail through the water just off the island.

"Sabine? Sabine?" Hera called desperately. The Interceptors pulled up to face them as the X-Wing caught fire.

Ezra and Kanan let loose with the cannons, destroying all 3 TIEs in seconds.

Hera watched a small figure leave the burning ship and run onto the island. "Thank god, she survived."

They landed and Sabine staggered up to the ship, exhausted by the intense flying. Kanan and Rex greeted her.

"Sabine, are you OK?" inquired Kanan, concerned.

"Just about," she replied, massaging a bruise.

"Let's get you inside."

They walked back in and the Ghost shot up into the atmosphere.

"Any idea what we'll find up there?" asked Sabine as she collapsed in her chair on the bridge.

"We have a pretty good idea," replied Hera sadly.

They exited the Stratosphere and observed the carnage before them. 4 Star Destroyers waited amongst the wreckage of the battle. Parts of ship were everywhere.

"I didn't think it would be this bad," gasped Sabine.

"Yeah, the MC80 kind of imploded," said Ezra. "And they shredded our fighters."

They jumped out into hyperspace.

"Everyone get some rest," ordered Hera as she gazed at the crew. Kanan, Ezra and Zeb were all shaken by the battle, while Rex was disappointed by Vader. Sabine looked dead on her feet and even Gregor seemed subdued. "We all need it."

The crew wandered to their cabins or wherever else they wanted to be then.

Chopper beeped twice.

"No Chop. I have no idea what we do next. We just have to wait and see."

* * *

Notes:

I know, space battles. I must admit, I enjoyed writing this one. A bit of tactics and a lot of destruction, accompanied by more X-Wing stuff, because that is fun. I will admit, the bit with Vader and Rex could've been more impactful, but it was 1:43am when I wrote this, so I think I can get a pass.  
Let me know what you think, if you enjoyed it or not, and follow if you want more, because I'm trying to update this daily.

MC80 'Wingless' image - images/mods/1/24/23625/MC80_  
MC40 image - .  
MC80 Liberty image - . /revision/latest?cb=20070104001953


	9. Breakdown P9 - Zygarria and ARC-170s

SWR – Breakdown P9 – Zygarria and ARC-170s

* * *

The Ghost travelled through hyperspace, surface scorched and pitted from the previous battle. The crew were tired and emotionally drained by the destruction of their entire fleet and the fleet before them. Their losses far outnumbered the Empire; Although the capital ship losses were exactly the same at 2 each, the Rebellion had far fewer of those and many more corvettes, which they lost more of as well as experienced pilots and valuable fighter craft.

Hera did a quick check on where the crew were. Kanan and Rex were examining the battle footage, trying to calculate what they'd lost. Sabine was sleeping in her bunk, exhausted by the stress of flying the X-Wing in tedious combat manoeuvres and losing most of Phoenix squadron. Zeb and Gregor were in the cargo hold, trying to keep themselves busy. Ezra was with Chopper in his room, doing something or other to keep themselves distracted.

"What were our losses like?" inquired Hera as she sat with Rex. Kanan stood, leaning against the table.

"Too high," sighed Kanan. "Barely anything made it out. We took losses we can barely replace, while the Empire lost easily-replaceable units."

"What are the casualty reports?"

Rex shook his head. "We don't know for certain, but from what we can tell, the survivors were us, Sato's Nebulon B-2, both remaining Hammerheads, 3 CR90 Corvettes, and an unknown number of Starfighters with hyperdrives. Aside, from anyone the Imperials caught, we're it."

"And the Empire?"

"2 Star Destroyers were lost, about 5 Carrack Cruisers and a Lancer frigate. Both of us lost most of our fighters, but that's easy to fix for the Empire."

"Goddam," Hera put a hand to her head.

They'd lost 2 MC80s of different classes, 4 MC40s, an unknown number of corvettes and masses of fighters. Things which they couldn't afford to lose.

"I assume we're on our way to meet with the rest of the fleet," asked Rex.

Hera nodded, "yeah. We'll find out more when we get there."

"Where's there?" enquired Kanan.

"Zygarria."

He got up and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you sure you're OK going there?" he asked. "Considering what happened?"

She gave him a smile of reassurance that didn't reflect how she actually felt. "I'll be fine."

She walked into the cockpit and Chopper left Ezra's room, following her.

"No rude comments?" she asked as he settled down beside her in the cockpit.

He beeped a negative response.

"We'll be fine Chop. This is just a temporary setback."

He beeped again and Hera sighed.

"I know how pessimistic you are, but now's not really the best time for that."

Chopper huffed and connected himself to his charging station.

"I hope so too. We can't take another loss like that."

The Ghost dropped out of hyperspace just within the system's boundaries a few hours later. A small group of rebel ships sat clustered around the Nebulon B-2. They approached the tiny fleet, not much larger than the fleet they'd started out with once they met Ashoka.

"Commander Sato, this is the Ghost," reported Hera.

"Hera, get yourself docked quickly please," he replied, sounding like he was busy with other things.

"Affirmative."

They drifted forward. Most of the Corvettes were docked onto the Nebulon, making repairs, with the exception of an undamaged Hammerhead that drifted just off to the side. Scorched fighters drifted about, waiting for a docking space.

"We really needed that carrier," muttered Hera as they drifted towards the nearest CR90, all the direct docking points on the Nebulon in use. They docked gently with a dull thump and the door opened quickly.

They made their way up to the small hanger, to find the 2 remaining other ships of Phoenix squadron parked to one side, practically scorched black they'd been just missed so many times. Wedge and the Y-Wing crew were standing around, still visibly shaken. Battle-damaged fighters littered the floor, filling as much space as possible, overworked repair crews rushing around with the pilots trying to fix ships.

"Wedge!" exclaimed Sabine as she spotted him. They met and hugged quickly. "Thank god you're still alive."

"As am I. And happier to see you and the rest of your crew made it out too. What happened to the X-Wing?"

"It crashed," she replied nonchalantly.

"Are you OK?" he asked, suddenly concerned.

She looked at him in confusion. "I'm fine. Why the sudden attention?"

"I'm just glad to see another friendly face, that's all. There are so few of those left."

They continued talking and Ezra watched them, both slightly jealous of all the attention Wedge was getting from Sabine and glad that someone they knew made it out. They walked out and headed towards the bridge, where they found a flustered Commander Sato busily directing the fleet.

"Commander Sato, Ghost crew reporting for duty," said Hera as they entered the bridge.

"Good. There's a lot of stuff to do. We've already sent a Corvette to take the engineers away. Out of Phoenix squadron, it's my command crew, your crew, Wedge, Dax, and Crasher and the 2 Hammerheads. That's it. As for our reinforcements, we're still waiting to see who else is coming, but I believe this is the majority. 3 CR90 corvettes, a Gallofree transport and a mixed assortment of fighters. A-Wings and Y-Wings mostly, but we've got a trio of ARC-170s from the clone wars."

"Those fighters are tough. They won't let you down sir," said Rex.

"Heh, they make good explosions!" Gregor semi-laughed.

"What can we do to help?" asked Kanan.

"We need lots of help for repairs and cargo management," he replied. "And we have a contact on the surface who needs rescuing."

"I'll handle that," replied Hera instantly.

"But Hera, what about…" Kanan began

"I have to do this. I have to get closure."

He looked at her for a few seconds, then nodded.

"Fine. But no unnecessary detours or risks, OK?"

Kanan and Hera walked out to get ready and Ezra, Gregor and Rex went to the Cantine.

"What's up with Zygarria?" inquired Ezra as they walked.

"It's a slave planet. The Zygarrian queen runs an empire based around the slave trade. It's a nasty place."

"Did you ever go there?"

"Once, when I was with Anakin, Ashoka and Obi Wan we infiltrated the place to rescue some kidnapped Togrutas after they'd been captured by the separatists. We went in and managed to get close to the Zygarrian Queen, only Obi Wan was captured and Anakin not long after that when he tried to help."

"Ah."

"I was captured too, put to work in the mines with Obi Wan while Anakin was kept by the queen. Apparently she'd taken a fancy to him."

"Hah! You wouldn't think the Zygarrians could ever do such a thing!" joked Gregor.

Rex and Ezra exchanged a look. That wasn't particularly funny.

"What about other places you've been to?"

"Oh, there's been tons."

"Kanan said you've been to Felucia and Umbara."

Rex let out a heavy breath. "Yeah. Nasty places both. You had the darkness on Umbara and the entire ecosystem out to get you on Felucia."

"Was it that bad?"

"Probably worse than you'd think. Flesh-eating bugs and carnivorous plants. And on Umbara we had General Pong Krell for a time. That was a nightmare. Complete disregard for clone lives and he even told both us and the 212th that the enemy had ambushed a patrol and taken uniforms from the others. So we got into a battle with each other."

Ezra gasped. "But he was a Jedi!"

"He was no Jedi. He had already decided to leave the Republic and we had to arrest him. We managed to capture him and then execute him before he could be freed."

"Damn."

Hera and Kanan walked to the Ghost, Rex and Gregor already on board.

"One last time, are you sure you want to do this?" Kanan asked as they boarded.

"Yes. I have to get answers."

They piled on and launched, heading away from the fleet and down to the planet's surface. They managed to grab a free landing spot quickly; there was a huge amount of traffic passing through the capital at any given time and there were queues for the spaces. They unloaded, leaving Gregor on the ship, dressed in what would be considered standard clothing here. Kanan and Rex were dressed in semi-fancy ceremonial gear and Hera acted the part of the servant, clothes specially chosen to hide as much of her as possible without looking suspicious.

"Are you sure you're ok being the slave?" Kanan asked.

"We'd look out of place otherwise," she replied. "and I'm not subjecting Ezra or Sabine to this."

They began to walk down the main avenue, past the horrific things they saw on the streets. Entire chains of helpless, malnourished slaves being shoved about and poked by potential buyers. The gutters were clogged with a mixture of blood and faeces and slaves struggled to carry produce to and from the ships.

"It's really degraded since I was last here," commented Rex. "Must've been something to do with Dooku killing the Zygarrian Queen and blaming it on Anakin."

"What was it like then?" asked Kanan

"Cleaner, for a start. And there were stricter rules on things. Nothing was as bad as this."

They made their way past a bunch of cages containing slaves packed together like sardines in a tin. There were several large Imperial buildings scattered amongst the mixture of dusty stone ones, most likely embassies, as Zygarria was allowed to keep its own police force and standing army instead of relying on the Empire.

"Spectre 1, approaching target position now."

Their target position was the large slave pits outside the palace and the data on their contact who'd been captured, which one of the guards should be able to provide, if they said they were interested in buying.

"I'm sorry, but he's been transferred to a secret work area," they were told by the Zygarrian guard on duty. "He was moved just a couple of hours ago."

"Ok. Thanks for the help. And is there a [HERA'S MOTHER'S NAME HERE] Syndulla here at all?" asked Kanan.

"I'm afraid she was executed for rebellious actions a few years ago."

They walked off to a semi-clean side alley and Hera dropped to her knees. Kanan put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry. If you want to take a second, then…"

"No. We have to go on," she replied, albeit shakily.

"Hey!" someone called down the street. "Are you beating some fresh meat down there?"

The passer-by was a young Zygarrian, looking at Hera with pleasure.

"She's mine! Go get your own" Kanan yelled back. "Sorry," he said to Hera.

"Not your fault."

"Rex, what can you tell me about the secret installations on this planet?"

"The ones I know about are 3 bases over a series of giant pits, out in sector 1717. I know 2 of them are gone, but the third is probably still operational. It's used for criminals and forced-laborers, and they're probably sending our contact there for imprisonment at the behest of the Empire."

"Commander Sato, this is Spectre 1. The contact is on a shuttle heading to a secret installation. We've been unable to acquire the target. I recommend we send bombers to take out the installation before they get there."

"Copy Spectre 1. Sending 3 fighter/bombers to take it out. I have volunteers waiting already."

Kanan clicked off his comm and they began to make their way back to the Ghost.

"I guess my words of advice must've made an impression on him," said Rex as they walked.

"And I think I might know who volunteered for the mission," sighed Kanan.

The 3 ARC-170s shot through the atmosphere, with Sabine, Wedge and Dax piloting the craft and Ezra, Crasher and another rebel as rear-gunners.

"Red One," said Sabine. Their flight name was Red for this mission, as the strike craft squads were formed and dissolved at notice to deal with threats. "In position off your starboard side."

"Red 2, In position off your port side," reported Dax.

"This is Red Leader, all units lock S-Foils in attack position and bear 5 by 5."

The 3 clone-war era fighters swooped round and began a 45-degree dive towards the surface.

"Rex, what are we looking for?"

"On your way through zone 1717 you should see a pit with 3 supports sticking out of the sides. That's part of one we destroyed in the Clone Wars, and not much further ahead you should see another one of those installations. That's your target."

"Right."

The ARCs swooped low and shot over the pit that Rex talked about.

A sudden beeping on the scanner indicated that they were being followed. 4 Z-95 Headhunters from the Zygarrian defence force.

"Contacts rear!" yelled Dax.

"Red one, red two, maintain course. I'm going to deal with our pursuit," Wedge said as he flipped his craft around and shot towards the Z-95s.

"Red Leader! What are you doing? Wedge!?" shouted Sabine.

"Buying you time."

"Stupid fool taking a jare," she muttered to herself, the last word in Mandalorian.

"I know what that means 'Bine," he replied. One of the Z-95s disappeared from their radar as it exploded in a ball of flame.

2 more engaged Wedge, while the third remaining one broke away and chased the 2 ARCs. 2 rear-guns spat green lasers at it as it rolled around, firing back. A lucky shot hit Dax's ship and its engines caught fire. The lack of power caused it to spiral into the ground, where it exploded. Seconds later, a round skimmed their ARC's left main S-Foil.

"What are you doing back there?" yelled Sabine as she adjusted, trying to keep the base's supports locked by the missile launcher.

There were 2 dull thumps and the proton torpedo pair was launched. Sabine immediately pulled away, throwing Ezra's aim.

"Hey! Watch-" was as far as he got before a blast rocked the ship and he was bashed against the side of the cockpit, stunning him.

"Ezra?" yelled Sabine. "Ezra?"

"I'm here…" he said groggily as he continued returning fire. He hit its wing and it shuddered off course for a second, then re-aligned itself after them. "I hit him, but he's very good. He's still onto us!"

Seconds later, Wedge swooped down and obliterated the fighter.

"Cheers Wedge!" said Sabine as she turned to look at the base collapse into the pit. "We got 'em."

"Yup," He replied.

They shot into the atmosphere.

"Ezra, what was up with the shooting today?" she asked, annoyed.

"I'm not used to being a tail-gunner on a small craft, for a start," he replied. "I still managed to hit him though."

"After he got Dax."

"Would you rather I'd have just stayed up in the frigate and leave you without a tail-gunner?"

"Wouldn't have made a difference."

"Sabine… are you OK?" asked Wedge cautiously. "Why are you giving Ezra a hard time?"

She blinked several times. She hadn't realized she'd been doing so, just talking. "Ummm…"

"You're probably just tired," Ezra offered, covering her back, as always. "You did have to fight in a new fighter against awful odds yesterday."

"Hey, what about me?" asked Wedge jokingly. "Do I not get any sympathy points just because I didn't do some cool trick flying through a breaking wave?"

"It's not that, it's just that the great Mandalorian is more used to painting spaceships, not flying them."

Sabine rolled the craft a little, causing Ezra to almost tip out of his seat.

"Hey!"

"You were saying something Ezra?" she said sweetly, albeit with a hint of sarcasm.

* * *

They shot back to the fleet, which was already looking much more organised. The hanger was mostly clear when they landed and they met Hera and what appeared to be a shark-man hybrid talking to some rebels.

"Welcome back!" said Hera. "Glad you got back safely." She didn't look very happy though. And something changed as they approached. Her face changed, hardening for some reason.

"We had to. You'd kill us if we were shot down," Sabine joked. "Who's this?"

"He is our contact. We picked him up once the shuttle landed as soon as you were spotted. He is Corl Marln, and he provided us with information about our next target. An old Venator-class Star Destroyer that landed on his home planet of Karkarodons in the final stages of the Clone Wars. It has a massive hanger and good armament and shielding, so we'll be able to use it as a base of operations, providing it's flyable. I'm sorry that you won't have time to relax, but we've got to go now."

"I'm OK with that," shrugged Ezra.

Sabine nodded and smiled.

Wedge hesitated. "I have to stay with the fleet. Besides, I'll be your back-up if necessary."

They began walking back to the Ghost.

"When did you pick him up?" asked Sabine.

"We grabbed him when the prisoner shuttle touched down after they heard that the base was under attack."

They got onto the Ghost and dropped to hyperspace as soon as possible.

Notes:

Almost done with the series. 2 chapters more at most, then I'll begin the third one. LMK what you think, follow if you enjoy it and tell me what isn't good with it.  
Probably not the best chapter I've written, but I thought it was OK. Hera had already accepted that her mother was probably dead.  
Also, explanation for Sabine giving Ezra a hard time and Hera's face change in next chapter. Almost the first thing.


	10. Breakdown P10 - Relay and Venator

SWR – E2 P10 – Splits and a Venator

* * *

The Ghost warped through hyperspace towards Karkaris, Hera in the cockpit, Zeb and Gregor in the cargo bay, everyone else in the common room.

"Any idea of what we're going up against down there?" asked Kanan

Rex nodded. "The Karkarodons are a vicious bunch. If we end up swimming, we'll be far outmatched in a fight. I can't say much about the battle fought on Karkaris; I was never deployed there and the battle occurred at the end of the Clone Wars. We didn't even get to land troops, so why a working Venator is down there, I don't know."

"Rex, back on Zygarria, what were those bases over the pits?" asked Sabine.

"Umm…" he started. "They were special prison facilities. Those incarcerated there are forced to work or just sit around and die of boredom."

Sabine got up, angry. "So there were people on those platforms?"

"Yes. There were."

"And we killed them. Innocent people."

"it's unlikely that they were innocent. The stations are used for…"

"Why didn't you tell us?" she snarled.

"Look, Sabine. We had to take it out. If we didn't we'd lose our contact and we wouldn't know about the Venator. If we didn't, then we'd have no carrier. And what would happen to the fighters? What if Wedge was hit and couldn't make it out?"

Sabine paused for a second and thought.

"Oh I'm sure you'd know all about killing civilians," snapped Kanan, to the surprise of everyone present.

"What did you just say?"

Kanan and Rex began arguing and Sabine threw herself down on the sofa next to Ezra, annoyed at yet another thing that she'd done that was bad. Like the last time, she'd killed civilians.

"Sabine," Ezra began, "what is it between you and Wedge? I need to know so that…"

"What makes you think there's anything between us?"

"It's just that…"

"I'm not telling you. And why should you care?"

"What? Sabine, I've done so much for you, gone out of my way to help you yet you care for some fancy flyboy who you almost never talk to or even see!"

"Ezra! How dare you…"

"I cover for you, I help you with getting you new paint stuff, I do so much for you, yet as soon as I do something wrong, you hate on me! Even Wedge knows!"

Down in the cargo hold, Zeb and Gregor had stopped their banter, listening to the shouts above.

"What do you think they're on about?" asked Gregor.

"I'm not sure," replied Zeb. "It doesn't sound like something they'd argue about. I'm going to see what's up."

Zeb climbed up the ladder and quietly padded to the main corridor. He needn't have bothered; they were too busy arguing with each other to hear him.

"NO! I DON'T BELIEVE THAT! I'M NOT THE ONE WHO STARTED A MASSACRE!"

"HOW DARE YOU!"

Sabine tackled Ezra and they both crashed into the wall, yelling at each other the entire way. Chopper came over to zap Ezra.

"STAY AWAY YOU USLESS MACHINE!" Ezra yelled as he kicked the droid. "I SWEAR I'LL DISMANTLE YOU SOON!"

"NO YOU WON'T!" yelled Hera, barging in from the cockpit. "YOU ARE THE MOST IMMATURE, SLEFISH PERSON I KNOW!"

It went on, everyone yelling at each other. Zeb had no idea what was going on.

The first whispers began to echo in his mind.

* * *

Sabine had gotten off Ezra and he curled up, holding his head.

"STOP BEING SUCH A WIMP!" she yelled.

"AND YOU CAN TALK!?" Hera yelled back.

Ezra was unaware of this. Something was probing his mind, stabbing at his mental defences with a fierce anger. It was so overwhelmingly hot and fiery, he almost felt cold…

That's where it was coming from.

Zeb began yelling at Chopper, reasons unknown, and Hera began to yell at him, Sabine at Rex and Kanan. It was a madhouse.

Gregor watched apprehensively from around the corner. They were all yelling at each other, except for the blue-haired kid Ezra. He was on one knee, holding his head, obviously in great distress.

"SHUT UP!" Gregor yelled, shifting the weapons on his shoulder uncomfortably, despite his familiarity with the weapons.

He was met with a barrage of curses, prompting him to take out his rifle and shoot a round into the ceiling. There was sudden silence.

"That's better. Now what is wrong with you? The kids on the floor, in severe pain, and you're ignoring 'im!"

Kanan made a start towards him and Gregor shifted the rocket launcher on his back. Kanan stopped.

"Now someone check on him before I get out my boomstick!"

They stood there silently, but Ezra walked over. "It's the nexus I told you about… it's hitting me… somehow… through the force… and it's using me as a relay…"

"Kid, I don't know what this Nexus of yours does exactly, but I think it'd be best if you went to the cargo hold and waited there."

The reason was obvious. The nexus's influence wasn't strong enough to go very far, but was very corrupting. Ezra nodded and walked down, and as soon as he did the mood suddenly lifted, the nexus's corrupting influence gone. They all breathed deeply, shaking off their sudden anger surge. Gregor was the only one who remained unaffected, raising his eyebrow as he ignored the slight chill he felt as Ezra walked back.

"What… was that?" asked Kanan.

"That must've been that force nexus you told us about," replied Gregor. "Kid mentioned it was using 'im as a relay or something like that."

"I don't remember. I remember almost none of it…" said Hera, concernedly checking her Lekku.

"You mentioned the nexus wiped the memories of other non-force users."

"I remember tackling Ezra. I didn't hurt him, did I?" asked Sabine, concerned.

"Not that I saw."

"He was fine," confirmed Kanan. "I still remember it."

"What did we say?"

"Nothing I'd like to repeat."

Ezra called up from the cargo hold. "I need to grab something from my room OK?"

"It's fine. Come upstairs."

Ezra climbed up and by the time he entered his room, all but Gregor began to start feeling a build-up of anger as the nexus assaulted them. Ezra came out with his belt and a small survival kit. He walked back down, then suddenly darted into Sabine's room and came out with a small, curved object. A jetpack. They charged down after him, to find the Ghost's bay door open, brilliant light shining in; during their arguments, the ship had dropped out of hyperspace and was in-atmosphere, following Hera's pre-determined flight path.

"Ezra, what are you doing?" Kanan yelled.

"I have to go a separate way, or else you'll be driven mad by the nexus!" he yelled back as he finished strapping the jetpack on.

"Do you even know how to use it?" Sabine shouted as she tried to climb down to stop him.

"Nope. I brought a parachute just in case," he smiled confidently as he stepped backwards off the ramp.

"Ezra!" she rushed to the edge of the ramp and stared down. She could see him falling, falling, falling. No parachute or jetpack flare. "Press the red-orange button," she yelled into her comm, hoping Ezra had his on. There was a pause, then a flare of red as the jetpack activated. She sighed and groaned at his departure.

They approached the Venator, a gleaming hulk of metal sticking out of the water. The left bridge was destroyed entirely, but the right looked intact. The upper hull was half-submerged, but stood gleaming, uneroded by the waves that lapped at its sides. Here and there, a small blaster mark had remained, stubbornly refusing to be cleaned away by the elements.

Minutes later, the Ghost touched down in the Venator's main hanger and the crew unloaded, weapons drawn. The air was hot and sticky, especially with the added warmth from the sun.

"Hera, Gregor, Chopper, get to the bridge. Sabine, me and Rex will head to the engines and get the reactor warmed up."

A sudden thud told them otherwise. They looked to see the 4th Brother standing there, sunlight glinting off the burnished metal left arm he now sported.

"Good morning friends," said the 4th brother.

* * *

"When did you get here?" asked Kanan, motioning for the others to continue onwards. They left to get to their respective positions, leaving Kanan alone with the 4th Brother.

"So, you think you can beat me?"

"Of course. I don't run my mouth like you do. I see you got a replacement arm. Do you want me to destroy it like Ezra did your previous one?"

The 4th brother cackled and drew 2 red lightsabers. The right one was the standard spinning one of the inquisition, the other a single blade.

"That's nice. Copying Ezra now, are we?" jested Kanan as he drew his own.

They locked blades and Kanan was forced back and back as he struggled to defend against 2 blades.

"Not so easy, is it?" the inquisitor jeered as Kanan was forced to roll away from a swing.

In the rector-control room, Sabine had activated the main reactor and left Rex to defend it. She charged back up to the hanger to find Kanan desperately struggling against the 4th Brother. She activated her darksaber and charged in. She was blocked by his second lightsaber and shoved backwards. The 4th brother was entirely focused on Kanan, trying to weaken the bigger threat, so she swung again and he locked blades this time, turning his head to look at the newcomer.

"Ah, miss Wren. I've been hoping to see you again," he grinned. "We never finished our discussion on what we would do together, did we?"

She snarled and kicked out at his leg, getting a savage return into her ribs. They continued to duel for a while, until Hera reported in.

"Spectre One, this is Two. We've gotten the ship ready to launch."

"lift-off now!" he ordered, fending off a lightsaber strike.

The 4th Brother sighed and stepped back.

"Well, it's been fun, hasn't it 'Bine?" he smiled at her.

She bristled at the use of the nickname and he used the distraction to swing forward and clip her on the shoulder, scarring the armour plate.

"I'm afraid I've spent too much time messing around. I need to rectify the… issue at the bridge," he continued as the ship began to rumble.

He locked blades with them and laughed. His left arm, the metal one, began to move. Something split off and jabbed at Sabine.

"Look out!" Kanan yelled, prompting her to duck at the last second. There was a clang as the metal arm glanced off her helmet and knocked her back. Despite her speed and natural skill, she almost didn't duck fast enough and unlocked the blades as she did so. A second later, his arm flicked and scorched her boots, again the armour saving her from serious injury.

"What is this guy?" gasped Kanan as they watched.

A second metal arm split off from the first and another lightsaber flew off his belt into it's cold metal hand. He now had 2 left hands and a right one.

"As you can see, the Bridger boy has done me something of a a favour. I now have something much better than simple flesh and blood."

He began swinging at them again and drove them back as they struggled to face 3 sabres at once. Suddenly, he deactivated one and used it to punch Kanan in the head, causing him to drop his lightsaber. The glance Sabine gave Kanan was enough of a distraction for him to lock blades using 2 of his lightsabers and grab her wrists. The sudden pressure forced her to drop the darksaber and he flung her on top of Kanan.

"And now, Miss Wren, you have a choice. You can submit to me and I won't kill your friends, or you can refuse and I'll kill all of them,"

"Why do you want me?"

"I'm not attracted to you. Don't take this the wrong way, but I kind of need revenge on your boyfriend for taking my arm."

"He's not my boyfriend! And you'll just kill us anyway!"

"Maybe, but a sweeter revenge would be for you to do this willingly instead of me having to force you to, which could create unnecessary complications should he connect to the nexus again."

"Go fuck yourself!"

He laughed and activated his third lightsaber.

"I don't need to. I have you. Now make your choice or I'll kill them all."

She hesitated, torn between possibly saving her friends and refusing and hoping that the others could get out.

"I…"

A figure swooped down low over Sabine's head and cannoned into the Inquisitor, sending them both tumbling down the central ramp. He then stood, arms by his side, waiting for the Inquisitor to get up.

"Ezra!" she yelled, running forward as Kanan groaned and got up.

"Stay back! I'm still being used as a relay!" he shouted back. When she kept on running, now with Kanan, he stuck a hand out and sent them both reeling back with a force push, Sabine slipping on the darksaber and landing heavily.

"Why, isn't this interesting," commented the Inquisitor as he got up, noting the surprise and slight fear that appeared in Ezra's eyes as he saw the dual metal arms. "Nice, aren't they?"

"Do you want to lose your other normal one?" asked Ezra lightly. "Then you can be like General Grevious."

"I would rather keep my other living one, actually. I'm simply here for some good-old fashioned revenge."

"I heard. And no, what you've got planned, that's not going to happen."

He lifted his hands from his sides slightly and 2 lightsabers shot out of his sleeve. They activated, throwing green and red light across the floor.

"Now, let's see who's a better fighter."

They began duelling, Ezra and the Inquisitor on seemingly an even footing, until the Inquisitor began using each blade on a wider arc, from different directions. Sabine and Kanan stood, helpless to approach lest they be affected by the nexus, and so watched as Ezra narrowly avoided losing a leg as he jumped over the blade swung at his legs. He kicked the Inquisitor and rolled backwards to give himself so breathing room.

"Sabine! I need a miracle!" he shouted to her. "A big one!"

"You'll need a massive miracle to save you now," snarled the Inquisitor as he swung at Ezra again. Ezra jumped over him and caught the thing Sabine threw to him. The Inquisitor stuck out a leg and caught Ezra as he landed, tripping him.

"As I said, you need a huge miracle," grinned the 4th brother as he stood over the winded Ezra.

Ezra smiled back and held up the device that Sabine had thrown to him. "Looks like I got one."

The 4th Brother's eyes narrowed and Ezra force-pushed him, then threw the device. The inquisitor hit it away before it hit him, sending it flying into the floor not far away.

The device detonated and flung both Ezra and the Inquisitor back away from the blast zone. A large hole was left in the floor where the device had detonated. It remained still for a second, then bulged down. The metal screeched as it tore off from the hull and plummeted into the ocean below, which wasn't far away.

"Ezra!" Sabine yelled and charged off to check on Ezra, who was now holding his head in his hands again. Kanan cursed and charged in after her, force-grabbing their dropped lightsabers as he did so.

Ezra felt the sudden, sharp jabs and he collapsed. It felt like his head was imploding the pain was so bad. He struggled to maintain his mental barriers as they were pounded.

"Sabine, stay back!" he managed to yell as he saw her approaching. She ignored him.

She dropped down by his side and checked. She could feel the raw power that was flowing through Ezra, even though she wasn't force-sensitive.

"You can fight it Ezra," she told him, staring into his eyes.

He stared back, struggling against the pain, then nodded. She got up and rushed over to Kanan, who gave her the darksaber. They stood, weapons drawn as the Inquisitor approached them. Despite the deep burns he'd sustained, he appeared outwardly calm, nonchalant even, as he slowly paced his way forward.

"What a pity it'd have to turn out like this," he mused. "Now I'll have to kill all of you."

He activated his 3 lightsabers as someone yelled something from behind them.

"Shut up you Kriffin' bastard!" It was Zeb, with Gregor just behind.

A Gregor with a rocket launcher.

Gregor fired and the rocket exploded just inches away from the 4th Brother as his lightsaber cut the tip, hoping to defuse it. He was flung aside again, but still got up, this time part-charred and actually angry now.

"Sorry buddy," said Gregor, either oblivious to or ignoring the sudden change in demeanour from the Inquisitor. "Republic rockets don't have fuses in the heads. They have explosives!"

The 4th Brother snarled and got up. He marched forward and the rebels took up flanking positions as Rex joined them. Zeb, Rex and Gregor fired at the Inquisitor, who deflected all of the shots away. Sabine and Kanan charged in and the trio battered each other with all their best tricks and abilities, evenly matched now that the 4th Brother was badly wounded.

"Back!" yelled Kanan and both him and Sabine rolled back, granting the others clear shots, which they gladly took.

The inquisitor rolled closer to Rex and deactivated one lightsaber, using the other 2 to cover him as he began to fight Rex with a single arm. Rex put up a good fight, but soon he was brought to his knees by a kick to the back of them, followed by an arm around his throat.

"Stop it!" the 4th Brother hissed. "Or I kill him!"

The others halted and watched, ready to pounce. The ship was suddenly silent and they could hear waves breaking below.

"Now lay down your weapons."

They looked at each other, unsure of what to do. They all knew he would kill them once they did, but they couldn't let Rex die.

Ezra watched through lidded eyes as Rex tapped something with the hand held behind his back. A concussion grenade. In the heat of battle, they'd forgotten Ezra, huddled over, trying to sort out his mind. He used the force to slowly pull out the pin that Rex couldn't reach as they talked. It dropped suddenly and the Inquisitor looked down the see Rex smiling up at him.

"Surprise!" said Rex.

There was a boom and the inquisitor was thrown backwards towards the hole in the ship, but not off it. He got up growling, and grabbed everyone by the throat using the force before they could recover from the detonation. They were lifted up, choking, and the 4th Brother laughed manically.

Ezra suddenly felt a calm clarity as he saw his friends being strangled to death. He forced the nexus out of his mind and the Inquisitor turned to look at him, feeling the sudden vanishing of the presence of the nexus. He dropped everyone and turned to face Ezra, ignoring the gasps as they drew breath again.

"So you have fought off the nexus… most impressive. you know..." he started.

"Don't even go there," said Ezra calmly as he pulled the two lightsabers towards him. A pair of blades activated, one red, one green.

They charged forward and Ezra fought with a tenacity and self-control that was totally unexpected. A single slice severed both of the Inquisitor's left arms, leaving him with a single blade against Ezra's 2.

The Inquisitor looked down and saw something move in the water below. Something large.

"You wouldn't…" began the Inquisitor.

Ezra force-pushed him off the ship… and into the mouth of a huge shark, easily the largest one he'd ever seen.

The shark had leaped out of the water, almost touching the bottom of the ship. It must've been around 180 feet long and its eyes…

… it's eyes were a shocking blue that matched Ezra's.

The shark fell back down with a splash that sent small tidal waves rolling away in every direction. Sabine had recovered first and stared at the beast that'd emerged, then at Ezra, who was watching triumphantly.

"Ezra, did you just…" she asked.

He looked at her and nodded. "I got rid of my connection to the nexus, and then did that!"

She went to him and looked down at the swirling water.

"Can you do that again?"

"Are you volunteering to be bait?"

They laughed and Sabine punched him on the arm.

"Don't even think about it. And where was that stunt a few minutes ago? Hell, even back on Garacor would've been nice. Get a shark to eat Vader."

"I guess this was a special occasion."

They went over to Rex and helped him up.

"Why do we always have to save you?" joked Ezra. "first on the Imperial ship and now here."

"Kid. Shut up." Rex said, not really meaning it.

"Did you get rid of your nexus connection?" asked Kanan.

"Gone. Poof. Must've been eaten by that shark."

"What shark?"

Ezra looked at him, aghast while Sabine began laughing.

"Not again," muttered Ezra. "Now I'm going to be told off for connecting with a 200-foot shark."

Kanan looked at him and laughed. "Ezra, why would I tell you off for that?"

"Because it was dangerous."

"That was a great feat of force-prowess. You should be proud."

Ezra grinned and they enjoyed a moment of serenity, which was rudely punctuated by a beep from Chopper.

"No, Ezra will not connect again and make the shark eat Zeb!" Hera scolded over the comm."

"I dunno. It's tempting," said Ezra as he smiled at the Lasat.

"If you get rid of me, then you'll be the only person he'd be able to bother," replied Zeb instantly. "And I'd come back as a Ghost to get Sabine to paint your room in the same way as the toothbrush!"

"Even your bunk? I get permission to paint your bunk?" asked Sabine innocently. Ezra saw what she was playing at, but before he could stop him, Zeb replied.

"Yup!"

"Score!" she yelled and charged off towards the Ghost.

"Where's she going?" asked Zeb, suddenly aware that he'd done something wrong.

"You just gave her permission to paint out room," Ezra reminded him.

Gregor laughed and elbowed the Lasat. "'Bout time. I can't imagine how boring it must be to share with you."

"Spectre Two to crew," said Hera suddenly, cutting off the banter before it could develop. "We need to get out of here ASAP. I've got 2 Star Destroyers in orbit at the far-end of the system. They'll be making their way here."

"OK. Spectre Five, secure the Ghost in one of the landing areas, then meet us at the bridge. Spectre Two, lock-down all doors except for the ones between the right hanger and the bridge so Five can get to us," ordered Kanan as they began running towards the bridge. "We don't know which sections are damaged and which aren't."

The Venator lifted off properly as the Ghost crew manned the various stations. Sabine came in as it exited Thermosphere and took up position on the engine-control console. They got out of atmosphere to see the 2 Star Destroyers approaching steadily. 2 Hammerhead corvettes were waiting there already.

"Hammer One, Hammer Two, this is Phoenix Leader," said Hera.

"Copy Phoenix lead. What've you got there?" asked one of the rebel captains.

"A new base."

One of them whistled. "Can I get a tour?"

"Maybe, if you're good and don't die, then I'm sure Rex would love to," she cast a sly look at Rex, who began signing that that was a bad idea. "Now, do we have any ideas as to how to get out of this?"

"I have one," Rex said, stepping forward. "Not very original, but it works."

"Ok, let's hear it. Can't be all bad," joked Kanan as they looked at Rex.

"We use the underside of the Venator as a shield by turning it onto its side, thereby protecting its bridge and main hanger and the Hammerheads, which would push it closer to the Star Destroyers. Then we strike from there. Ideally, we'd have bombers to fly out and attack the enemy once we're close enough, but I don't see that happening here. Not with just the Ghost."

Hera looked at the Venator before them and nodded. "It'll have to do. We have no other plan."

They spun the ship around and the Hammerheads began pushing the ship towards the Star Destroyers, which opened fire in a devastating barrage.

"Looks like this might actually work, for once," commented Kanan.

The ship's outdated shields had begun to flicker as rounds hit it every second, but they'd covered nearly half the distance between them and the Star Destroyers.

"They're splitting up," said Ezra from the sensors station. "Looking to flank us I'd say."

They thought for a bit. There wasn't much they could do to survive. By the time they'd aligned themselves for a jump out, they'd be killed. Likewise if they tried to fight them off. The Star Destroyers still had to launch their fighters as well.

"I'm open to suggestions guys," sighed Hera. "They might have us this time."

They waited as the Star Destroyers continued bombarding them. The shields failed and the hull began to weaken. There was nothing they could do. The Ghost would be shot to bits with the Hammerheads, or the Venator would be destroyed and they'd lose their new carrier.

* * *

The remnants of their fleet dropped out behind the Star Destroyer and immediately began firing. Fighters began launching, A-Wings and Y-Wings interspersed with X-shaped craft.

The new X-Wings had arrived in force.

As the Star Destroyers turned to face the new threat, the Venator was flipped back around and the Hammerheads surged forwards. Guns blazed and the Star Destroyers were engaged on 2 fronts. The rebel fighters shredded through the rapidly-deployed TIE fighters and proceeded to attack the Star Destroyers. Many of the turbolasers from the ISDs missed the rebels and hit each other, further weakening the shields, which soon flickered out. As soon as they did so, the rebel X-Wings formed up and charged towards the Bridge, unleashing a stream of proton torpedoes that obliterated one of them. The second one was destroyed by a concentrated barrage from the Venator and soon both were tumbling down, caught in the planet's gravity well.

"Whew!" sighed Hera.

"I thought we were goners!" laughed Gregor. "These Venators are still too tough though."

"Commander Sato, this is Phoenix One. New carrier is secured and awaiting orders."

"Very good. Jump out and we'll meet at rebel base GTX10," he replied.

"Copy."

They turned and jumped out of the atmosphere, leaving the Star Destroyers to tumble to their probable doom inside the planet's atmosphere.

Notes: I apologise if this was somewhat lacking in detail. The writer's block you get at 1am is astonishing, so the last part is perhaps lacking in the detail that the previous space battles had. For those who missed it, Sabine asked "So I get to paint your bunk?" instead of "So I'd get to paint your bunk?" meaning it was present tense, not past, thereby granting her permission to paint Zeb's bunk now, not later. I wanted to clarify this because 2 people I know who did some proof reading didn't get it, so just so you know. What did I miss? What should I improve?  
Hope you enjoyed!


	11. Breakdown P11 - Recovery and a New Goal

Star Wars Rebels – E2 P11 – Recovering and a new goal.

* * *

The Venator had landed outside the rebel base on this hot, dusty world. While not a true desert planet, Arus V was arid and bone-dry. The rebels were supplied by underground hydrofarms and a large chalk aquifer / reservoir of water, both of which the new arrivals unanimously agreed that they were inferior to the normal stuff they bought at markets.

Sabine strode down to her cabin after giving Wedge's new X-Wing a colourful makeover, and much to Ezra's annoyance, she didn't ask him to help this time. However, he was more preoccupied with something else. Something more important.

Kanan entered Ezra's room. "I could sense that something was gnawing at you. What's up?"

Ezra sighed. "It's about the nexus. What it's done." Kanan frowned and Ezra hurried to expand upon what he meant. "I meant as in what it could mean for me… I was the one who connected with it. And I got so much anger from it."

"You're worried that by experiencing such anger, you won't be able to become a Jedi?" Kanan stated more than asked, but Ezra nodded all the same.

"Yeah."

Kanan unfolded his arms. "Ezra, just because you experienced anger doesn't mean you're a bad person. It won't stop you from becoming a Jedi. There have been Sith who became Jedi, and you haven't done anything nearly as bad as them. You'll become one someday."

"Besides, I'd never let either of you fail," said Hera as she stepped in.

Ezra laughed. "That's all the motivation I need. Take the long, hard path to becoming a Jedi or face Hera's wrath."

"I'd pick the former," agreed Kanan.

Hera sat down on the chair Kanan had left empty and smirked. "You know better than to mess with me."

Sabine and Zeb walked in.

"It's true. It never results in a good outcome!" joked Kanan. "At least not for us."

"And stopping you from eating poisonous fruit is a bad thing?" jested Sabine, reffering to a time when Kanan had almost eaten some poisoned store-bought fruit and had been saved by Hera.

"Ezra, important lesson. You can never win an argument with a Woman." Kanan advised as he leaned back in his chair.

"Oh really?" grinned Ezra. "Sabine, debate me."

"OK. I'm still a much better shot than you," she began, eyes playfully daring him to refuse.

"Are you kidding me? You saw me nut that dude on the bike!" Ezra stretched his arms out in exasperation.

"You've done one single amazing shot in your life! You can't claim you can shoot better when using the force as well!"

"I did not use the force to help!"

"I think you did…" she trailed teasingly, giving him a coy look.

"Want to take this to the range?"

"You're on Bridger," she laughed, pushing herself off from the wall.

They continued their friendly argument as they went outside.

"Was Ezra thinking he might not be able to become a Jedi?" inquired Zeb as they got up as well.

"Pretty much. I told him not to worry about it," replied Kanan, shrugging. "He doesn't have to worry about it."

"Dumb kid. One thing like what he did isn't going to ruin everything," Zeb snorted as he walked out, scratching his head.

* * *

Sabine and Ezra reached the shooting range, having grabbed their gear on the way, and set up on one of the lines.

"You ready for this?" asked Ezra, cracking his knuckles.

"I should be asking you that question," she shot back with a smirk, guns ready.

The range targets popped up randomly on their individual sides and they did their best to hit them quickly and move onto the next.

"Feel free to give up anytime," jested Sabine as she hit her 16th headshot in a row.

Ezra frowned slightly, then twitched his wrist just as she fired, sending the bolt just past the target's head. She raised her eyebrow and gave a 'hmmm….' as she aimed again. The next shot missed as well and she glanced over at Ezra, seemingly focused on aiming at the next target. She elbowed him in the ribs and his next shot went flying off over all the targets.

"Hey!"

She smiled at him. "I won't if you won't"

"I didn't do anything!" he said, doing his best to look innocent.

She rolled her eyes and they continued firing for several more minutes. When they stopped they checked the score panel, Ezra leaning over her shoulder to see. They'd hit the exact same number of targets, but due to Ezra's meddling, Sabine had missed 1 more than him. However, her number of headshots far surpassed his.

"Looks like you win," said Ezra. "The Great Mandolorian Weapons Master remains unbeaten."

He smiled slyly at her before continuing.

"But I have more style."

He slapped something to her chest and it released a puff of blue smoke, temporarily clouding her vision. He dashed off, pursued by Sabine, leaving several bemused and frankly amazed rebels watching the pair go.

"Did that just happen?" asked one.

"Yup." Replied another. "They just came yesterday and now they've beaten the squadron record. By 70 points."

The Ghost was parked near the rebel command centre and they stopped off there before they attended the next intelligence briefing. They walked up into Ezra's room, where he searched for something in the drawers under his bed. Sabine spotted something in the cupboard.

"Nice to know you kept it," she commented as she admired the gleaming lightsaber. "Especially after we both nearly died to secure it."

"Mhhhmmm…" mumbled Ezra as he grabbed something out of the back of the cupboard. He passed the jetpack back to Sabine. "I think that's yours."

"About time," she laughed, slugging him on the shoulder. "I was worried you might get too attached to it and get pissed when I asked for it back and then we would've had another huge argument."

His face fell and she immediately regreted having said something to change his mood so much, even though she didn't expect him to do that.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

"No. It's not your fault. It's what was said during the argument that still gets me," he turned away slightly.

She moved round so she could see him properly. "Why? What did I say? You know I don't love Wedge, right? I was just… getting away from it all. Talking to someone different."

"I know. It's what I said to you that's bothering me."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing I care to share." He blinked and looked at the ceiling.

She tossed the lightsaber onto his bunk and put the free hand on his shoulder.

"I don't mind. I know you didn't believe what you were saying," she comforted. He still looked upset, so she embraced him and they stayed like that for several seconds.

He buried his head in her shoulder. "You said I believe it was better if my parents were dead. And I said that at least I didn't start a massacre."

He took a deep breath.

"I'm just so sorry for everything I've done. For abandoning you guys and then on the cruiser with Hera and…"

Sabine pulled back slightly so she could look at him and put a finger to his lips.

"Shhh…. Don't beat yourself up about it."

"It was my fault. I should've seen it coming."

"And how would you have done that?" she stepped back, crossing her arms and looking at him inquisitively.

"Ummm…." he scratched the back of his neck and looked at the floor.

She laughed and tugged his arm. "Stop being di'kut," she said warmly. He knew the meaning of that word was also 'stupid', but he honestly didn't expect her to say anything else in this instance.

"Right," he smiled at her as she placed the jetpack on the desk and walked out. "Let's see what adventures Hera has in store for us."

* * *

They jogged to the briefing room and watched a diagram fade away as they entered.

"Any questions?" asked Hera, leaning against the table.

Ezra raised his hand slightly. "Could you repeat the presentation?"

Several rebels sniggered as Hera rolled her eyes.

"Do we want to see it again?" Hera asked the other rebels, to be met with complete agreement from those present.

"OK. Our next target is the Halcyon station on the moon of Halcor. It's both an Imperial Academy and a large garrison and it is having an important visitor soon, so we need to ruin their visit. There happens to be a large training op soon and a ceremonial Guard reshuffle, so there won't be many Imperials in the base itself. By knocking out the central generator, we can expose and attack the VIP in the commander's office. Sabine and Ezra, I'll need you 2 going through the vents to knock out their communications. Kanan, Zeb and Chopper will plant the explosives on the generator, then we'll meet up outside the office. You'll knock out the power, grab the VIP and rendezvous with me for extraction. Got It?"

"Seems clear enough," replied Ezra.

"Ezra, please try not to kill everything this time."

He grinned. "The key word here is stealth. They won't know a thing, unless Zeb gets stuck climbing into an air vent again."

There were some sniggers at the thought of the Lasat getting stuck.

She gave the 2 teens a funny look. "And I swear if you to sneak off for a make out session like you did just before this…"

There was some suppressed laughter as both of them blushed, even though they'd been doing nothing of the sort.

"Would you rather we were doing what you were with Kanan that night?" Ezra shot back, well aware of the ear-ripping he'd get for it.

There was a lot of raucous laughter as now Hera and Kanan blushed.

"I'm not the one who had to be given the talk at _16_ years old," she returned as Kanan fidgeted uncomfortably. "and who'd been flirting with Sabine since day one."

"While we were being shot at," added Sabine, nudging Ezra.

"Come on, that was ages ago!" He turned to face Sabine.

"And you continued to flirt with me to the extent that you thought it'd be funny replaced the gun under my pillow with a pink stick!"

The laughter intensified.

"Wait, you have a GUN under your pillow?" gasped Kanan, much to the amusement of those present.

"Uh, yeah," she crossed her arms and looked at Kanan. "What did you expect?"

Kanan sighed and looked out a window.

"To be honest, he took it better than I expected," Zeb half-whispered to them.

"Now Zeb, I'm sure you'd like to join Sabine on a weapons safety talk," said Kanan as he turned around. Ezra could sense he was suppressing a smile.

"No thanks, I'll pass. Have to defend myself from the kid if he goes mad in the night," Zeb patted Ezra on the head. "Don't want to be locking my rifle in 'safe' mode when his mind is taken over by an inanimate object again," Zeb managed to say without getting a jab in the side.

"In all honesty, I think we could probably stop the shooting lessons," said Rex, stepping forward from where he'd been standing at ease. "Not after that shot from the moving speeder bike."

Almost all present looked at Ezra, except for Sabine, who rolled her eyes.

"Sabine? Would you be so kind?" Ezra stepped to the side and extended an arm to present Sabine, who huffed in slight annoyance as she plugged in her PDA and opened the video file. The rebels watched in astonishment as Ezra stood on the moving bike, shot the trooper through the head, and then sat back down, not a care in the world.

"Alright, you can close your mouths now," video Ezra said and those who did hurriedly closed theirs.

"If only we were all that lucky," Zeb winked at Ezra and dodged the fist that came his way.

"As you can see from the evidence, I can handle a weapon fine," smirked Ezra as he leaned against the holotable, feigning nonchalance despite having failed to get one back on Zeb. "And I don't sleep with my weapon like those 2 muttonheads, so I don't think I need to attend it,"

Kanan raised an eyebrow and suddenly his lightsaber activated in training mode while on his belt, causing him to jump up in surprise.

"I disagree," Kanan continued, smiling slightly as Ezra messed around trying to deactivate it.

Ezra decided to unclasp it from his belt and finally switched it off. "Come on, that's not fair!" he complained. "Next thing you'll tell me is that you've been mind-tricking Hera into going into bed with you!"

"Ezra…" was as far as Hera got before he bolted from the room, grinning. "Zeb, would you do the honours?"

"With pleasure," he grinned as he gave chase.

* * *

Notes:

I hope you guys enjoy! I really enjoyed writing this and I hope you enjoyed reading it! The final series won't be coming out as often, but I think it's going to be much better quality-wise.  
Kudos and/or comment if you liked it or comment with verbal abuse for messing something simple up that I missed in my proof-read.

Also, di'kut means 'stupid', 'waste of space' or 'useless person', but can be used in any of the 3 ways in both banter and being rude.


	12. Update

IMPORTANT NOTIFICATION INCOMING:

The story you just read is part of a series of 3, which are being linked to below. Read in order to make sure you can enjoy the story as a whole (please note that fanfiction is dumb as F*** so I can't put the full links in, just the number and name section.):

1) A Fallen Hero: s/12310211/1/Star-Wars-Rebels-Fallen-Hero

2) Breakdown: s/12319117/1/Star-Wars-Rebels-Breakdown

3) Shattering: s/12333387/1/Star-Wars-Rebels-Shattering

Please let me know what you think or favorite if you enjoyed. It does mean a lot and encourages me to make more.


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